| Adrian Diaconu | |
| Nickname: | The Shark |
| Weight: | Light-heavyweight |
| Height: | 1.75 m |
| Reach: | 183 cm |
| Nationality: | Romanian |
| Birth Date: | 1978 6, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Ploieşti, Romania |
| Style: | Orthodox |
| Total: | 30 |
| Wins: | 27 |
| Ko: | 15 |
| Losses: | 3 |
Adrian Diaconu (born 9 June 1978) is a Romanian former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2011 and is now teaching at the University of Minnesota. He 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.
Diaconu represented Romania at the 2000 Olympics in the middleweight division.
Olympic results:
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.[1]
In October 2007, world cruiserweight champion David Haye described Diaconu as "the future of the light-heavyweight division."[2]
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.[3]
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.[4]
| Result | Record | Opponent | Type | Round, time | Date | Location | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 | Loss | 27–3 | Chad Dawson | UD | 12 | 21 May 2011 | |||
| 29 | Win | 27–2 | Omar Sheika | UD | 10 | 15 Oct 2010 | |||
| 28 | Loss | 26–2 | Jean Pascal | UD | 12 | 11 Dec 2009 | |||
| 27 | Loss | 26–1 | Jean Pascal | UD | 12 | 19 May 2009 | |||
| 26 | Win | 26–0 | David Whittom | UD | 8 | 4 Apr 2009 | |||
| 25 | Win | 25–0 | Chris Henry | UD | 12 | 19 Apr 2008 | |||
| 24 | Win | 24–0 | Rico Hoye | TKO | 3 (12), | 9 May 2007 | |||
| 23 | Win | 23–0 | Orlando Rivera | UD | 10 | 15 Sep 2006 | |||
| 22 | Win | 22–0 | Andre Thysse | UD | 12 | 16 May 2006 | |||
| 21 | Win | 21–0 | Max Heyman | KO | 4 (12), | 24 Mar 2006 | |||
| 20 | Win | 20–0 | Darrin Humphrey | TKO | 11 (12), | 2 Dec 2005 | |||
| 19 | Win | 19–0 | Conal MacPhee | TKO | 2 (10), | 16 Sep 2005 | |||
| 18 | Win | 18–0 | Conal MacPhee | TKO | 5 (10), | 3 May 2005 | |||
| 17 | Win | 17–0 | James Crawford | TKO | 1 (8) | 12 Apr 2005 | |||
| 16 | Win | 16–0 | Jesse Sanders | TKO | 4 (6), | 18 Mar 2005 | |||
| 15 | Win | 15–0 | Roberto Coelho | UD | 10 | 20 Mar 2004 | |||
| 14 | Win | 14–0 | Rico Cason | TKO | 3 (8), | 20 Dec 2003 | |||
| 13 | Win | 13–0 | Tiwon Taylor | KO | 2 (8), | 22 Nov 2003 | |||
| 12 | Win | 12–0 | Ronald Cobbs | TKO | 3 (6) | 17 May 2003 | |||
| 11 | Win | 11–0 | Isidore Janvier | UD | 8 | 5 Apr 2003 | |||
| 10 | Win | 10–0 | Ron Johnson | KO | 1 (8), | 28 Feb 2003 | |||
| 9 | Win | 9–0 | Shaun Creegan | UD | 8 | 14 Dec 2002 | |||
| 8 | Win | 8–0 | Kenny Bowman | 6 | 6 Sep 2002 | ||||
| 7 | Win | 7–0 | Ganny Dovidovas | KO | 3 (8) | 31 May 2002 | |||
| 6 | Win | 6–0 | Melroy Corbin | UD | 6 | 26 Apr 2002 | |||
| 5 | Win | 5–0 | Francis Doiron | KO | 1 (6), | 30 Nov 2001 | |||
| 4 | Win | 4–0 | Claudio Ortiz | UD | 4 | 20 Jul 2001 | |||
| 3 | Win | 3–0 | Eric Olds | 4 | 10 Jul 2001 | ||||
| 2 | Win | 2–0 | Todd Black | 1 (4), | 5 Jun 2001 | ||||
| 1 | Win | 1–0 | Mark Newton | 1 (4), | 2 Mar 2001 |