Adrian Diaconu (born 9 June 1978) is a Romanian former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2011, and held the WBC light-heavyweight title from 2008 to 2009. As an amateur he won a silver medal in the middleweight division at the 1999 World Championships and bronze in the light-middleweight division at the 1997 World Championships. Diaconu was born in Ploieşti, Romania, but fought out of Montreal, Quebec, Canada for almost his entire professional career.
Amateur career Diaconu represented Romania at the 2000 Olympics in the middleweight division.
Olympic results: Defeated Abdelhani Kenzi (Algeria) 19-9 Defeated Jitender Kumar (India) 12-3 Lost to Jorge Gutiérrez (Cuba) KO 1
Professional career Following the Olympics, Diaconu made his professional debut in 2001 and competed exclusively as a light-heavyweight. He went on to claim his first regional championship in June 2005, winning the Canadian title with a fifth-round knockout of Conal MacPhee. In December 2005, Diaconu won the WBC International title after knocking out Darrin Humphrey. This was followed up with a knockout against Max Heyman to win the vacant WBA–NABA and TAB titles. Diaconu vacated his Canadian title to face Rico Hoye in an eliminator bout for the WBC world title. He was successful, dominating Hoye until a stoppage in the third round. With the win, Diaconu became the mandatory challenger for then-WBC world champion Chad Dawson.http://www.cbc.ca/cp/sports/070509/s050985A.html
In October 2007, world cruiserweight champion David Haye described Diaconu as "the future of the light-heavyweight division."
On 19 April 2008, Diaconu won the vacant WBC interim title with a twelve-round unanimous decision over Chris Henry in Romania; the interim title being at stake to allow full titleholder Chad Dawson to make an optional defense after a previous injury-produced delay to the mandated bout. In July 2008, Diaconu was elevated to full champion status after Dawson vacated the title to avoid having to make the mandatory defense.ESPN – Dawson vacates 175-pound title to gird for possible showdown with Tarver – Boxing
Diaconu suffered his first career defeat and lost the WBC world title to Jean Pascal on 19 June 2009, and would go on to lose a rematch on 11 December 2009. Diaconu's final professional fight took place on 21 May 2011 against former champion Chad Dawson, who defeated Diaconu by a unanimous decision after twelve rounds. A year later, Diaconu announced his retirement from boxing, stating that he felt a lack of support from his promoters, Interbox, to organize significant fights for him.
Professional boxing record
ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes30Loss27–3 Chad DawsonUD1221 May 2011 29Win27–2 Omar SheikaUD1015 Oct 2010 28Loss26–2 Jean PascalUD1211 Dec 2009 27Loss26–1 Jean PascalUD1219 May 2009 26Win26–0 David WhittomUD84 Apr 2009 25Win25–0 Chris HenryUD1219 Apr 2008 24Win24–0 Rico HoyeTKO3 (12), 9 May 2007 23Win23–0 Orlando RiveraUD1015 Sep 2006 22Win22–0 Andre ThysseUD1216 May 2006 21Win21–0 Max HeymanKO4 (12), 24 Mar 2006 20Win20–0 Darrin HumphreyTKO11 (12), 2 Dec 2005 19Win19–0 Conal MacPheeTKO2 (10), 16 Sep 2005 18Win18–0 Conal MacPheeTKO5 (10), 3 May 2005 17Win17–0 James CrawfordTKO1 (8)12 Apr 2005 16Win16–0 Jesse SandersTKO4 (6), 18 Mar 2005 15Win15–0 Roberto CoelhoUD1020 Mar 2004 14Win14–0 Rico CasonTKO3 (8), 20 Dec 2003 13Win13–0 Tiwon TaylorKO2 (8), 22 Nov 2003 12Win12–0 Ronald CobbsTKO3 (6)17 May 2003 11Win11–0 Isidore JanvierUD85 Apr 2003 10Win10–0 Ron JohnsonKO1 (8), 28 Feb 2003 9Win9–0 Shaun CreeganUD814 Dec 2002 8Win8–0 Kenny Bowman66 Sep 2002 7Win7–0 Ganny DovidovasKO3 (8)31 May 2002 6Win6–0 Melroy CorbinUD626 Apr 2002 5Win5–0 Francis DoironKO1 (6), 30 Nov 2001 4Win4–0 Claudio OrtizUD420 Jul 2001 3Win3–0 Eric Olds410 Jul 2001 2Win2–0 Todd Black1 (4), 5 Jun 2001 1Win1–0 Mark Newton1 (4), 2 Mar 2001
References
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