By Scott Shaffer

Juan Diaz W12 Julien Lorcy... Juan Diaz thrilled his hometown crowd with a unanimous decision over a determined Julien Lorcy in San Antonio on Thursday night.  In the first episode of the ESPN/Main Events series of telecasts, Diaz started strong, cutting Lorcy's brittle skin under his right eye, but the veteran Frenchman turned the bout into a thriller that had to bring smiles to the faces of ESPN executives.  Like virtually every Diaz bout, there were plenty of toe-to-toe exchanges and Diaz (rated #5 by Boxingtalk) gave better than he got.  With Punchstat counting 1018 punches thrown, Lorcy was the more active boxer, but with 911 punches of his own, Diaz was plenty busy too. He was also more accurate, outlanding Lorcy, 281-222. The official scores of 119-109 and 118-110 (twice) do not reflect how tough a fight this was for Diaz, the 21-year old WBA lightweight titlist.