(Photo credit: Esther Lin/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: WBA interim welterweight champion Keith Thurman (22-0, 20 KO’s) made weight on Friday in for his fight against 34-year-old Julio Diaz (40-9-1, 29 KO’s) on Saturday night at the StubHub Center, in Carson, California, USA. Thurman weighed in at 145.5lbs. Diaz came in at 146.5lbs.
This fight is essentially a stay busy fight for the 25-year-old Thurman, even though Diaz recently gave Amir Khan and Shawn Porter all they could handle. Diaz is still not considered to be in the same league as Thurman, and it’s going to take a miracle for him to pull off an upset in this fight.
“The thing is he’s getting knocked out tomorrow night,” Thurman said. “He couldn’t even knockout Amir Khan. A knockdown isn’t a knockout. If he’s not well rested for the fight, he’s going to get his rest come fight time. I hope he brings me a challenge. A loss would damage my career. I have a bright future in front of me. Hopefully that world title shots is right around the corner. It’s something I truly deserve.”
“This is his time now and I’m coming to ruin his party,” Diaz said. “I’m confident that my experience will be the difference in this fight.”
The three television fights on this Showtime-televised triple-header are little more than stay busy fights for all three stars. It’s kind of disappointing if your a boxing fan wanting to see good fights, but Showtime agreed to televise the mismatches from Golden Boy, so this is on them for saying yes.
They could have told Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer to go back to the drawing board and come up with three competitive fights on paper, but they blessed the fights. All we can hope for is that the fights turn out to be better than what they appear to be.
Lucas Matthysse (34-3, 32 KO’s) weighed in at 140 on the dot for his stay busy fight against lightweight John Molina (27-3, 22 KO’s). Molina weighed in slightly less at 139.25. This is a fight to get Matthysse’s confidence back after his loss to Danny Garcia from last September. Once Matthysse beats Molina, he’ll be trying to get a world title shot against one of the 140lb champions. It’s very likely would could see Matthysse fight for the WBA or WBC titles once Garcia vacates and moves up in weight.
Matthysse said “After tomorrow night, I want a world title fight or a rematch with Danny Garcia.”
In what will likely be the biggest mismatch on the card, WBC lightweight champion Omar Figueroa (22-0-1, 17 KO’s) will be defending his title against Jerry Belmontes (19-3, 5 KO’s). Figueroa weighed in at 134.75lbs. Belmontes weighed in at 134.75. Belmontes, #15 WBC, has lost three out of his last five fights.
Official weights:
Keith Thurman 145.5 vs. Julio Diaz 146.75
Lucas Matthysse 140 vs. John Molina 139.25
Omar Figueroa 134.75 vs. Jerry Belmontes 134.75
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