by Katsidis. In the ninth round, Casamayor was docked a point due to a low blow. All of this enabled Katsidis to gradually build up a lead on two of the judges' scorecards, until a well-placed counter left hand from Casamayor caught him on the chin in the tenth round, flooring him for a fourth time. Barely able to stand up, Katsidis was able to carry on but shortly afterwards a further flurry of unanswered shots from Casamayor forced referee Jon Schorle to stop the fight. This handed Katsidis his first defeat and cost him the WBO interim lightweight title. Again, cuts and bruises were noticeable around his eyes after the fight. Second defeat Following the defeat, a rescheduled fight with Juan Díaz was set for 6 September at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas for the vacant IBO lightweight championship. Over the course of twelve rounds, Katsidis underperformed and enabled a determined Díaz (who had himself suffered a career first loss in his previous fight) to counterpunch and time his attacks with regularity. His face bloodied and bruised once again, Katsidis suffered his second consecutive defeat, with Díaz winning a split decision. Two of the judges scored the fight 116–112 and 115–113 for Díaz, while the third scored it a somewhat controversial 115–113 for Katsidis. 2009 Comeback trail An opportunity for Katsidis to reclaim the vacant WBO Asia Pacific lightweight title was scheduled for 31 January at the Cebu Coliseum in Cebu City, Philippines, with Angel Hugo Ramirez as his opponent. The ten-round contest was won convincingly by Katsidis, despite appearing to be gunshy at times, coupled with Ramirez's unwillingness to engage. Ramirez was knocked down four times (once in the second round and three times in the fourth), while a point was deducted from Katsidis for hitting Ramirez when he was floored from a slip later in the second round. At the end of the fight, the judges scored 98–87, 96–89 and 96–89 in favour of Katsidis. On 4 April, Katsidis faced Jesús Chávez at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. This was part of the Lightweight Lightning event, a lightweight eliminator tournament organised by Golden Boy Promotions. After an initially tentative start by Katsidis, he was soon able to pull ahead on the scorecards due to his characteristic onslaught of attack, which ultimately forced Chávez (who had sustained a bad cut on his forehead towards the