Joseph “Jojo” Diaz Jr. (Photo: Golden Boy Promotions)
Joseph “Jojo” Diaz He will face Jesús Perez on Thursday night at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, California, not far from his childhood hometown of South El Monte. The 10-round bout will headline the Golden Boy Promotions card, which will be streamed live on DAZN (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT).
At Wednesday’s weigh-in, Diaz weighed 137.6 pounds. Perez came in at 138.2 pounds.
His contracted weight for this fight was 139 pounds.
The upcoming bout is set to be a 10-round match, with Diaz (33-4-1, 15 KOs) facing off against Perez. Diaz was originally scheduled to face Richard Medina on October 21, but had to withdraw due to reported illness. In his last fight, Diaz defeated Jerry Perez by unanimous decision on July 8. Prior to that, he lost a split decision to Melcito Jesta. Diaz weighed 141.5 pounds and 139.5 pounds against Perez and Jesta, respectively.
Diaz, who is 31 years old, has not reached the lightweight limit since his match against Devin Haney in December 2021, where he lost by unanimous decision. He previously defeated Tevin Farmer in January 2020 to win the IBF world junior lightweight title.
Perez (24-5, 18 KOs), of Tijuana, Mexico, suffered a defeat in his last fight against Brian Norman Jr. and lost by unanimous decision. The 26-year-old has lost four of his past six matches.
In another bout, flyweight contender Ricardo Sandoval (23-2, 16 KOs) of Rialto, Calif., will face Jason Mama of the Philippines in a 10-round match. Sandoval, who weighs 112 pounds, was rated No. 8 by Ring Paper and won his last fight by unanimous decision against Victor Sandoval on October 21.
Mama (19-1, 10 KOs) has won his last three fights and weighed in at 112.4 pounds at the recent weigh-in. He suffered a defeat against then-IBF world flyweight titleholder Sonny Edwards in December 2021.
Francisco A. Salazar has been writing for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and overseas since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. You can contact him at: [email protected]
