By Matt Lieberman: Joseph ‘Jo Jo’ Diaz Jr. says his management is in the process of finalizing a fight with Ryan Garcia that could be announced by next week. The contest will take place in November or December on DAZN, and it would be a massive fight.
Ryan’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions recently tipped off boxing fans that he’s going to be fighting the former IBF super featherweight champion ‘Jo Jo’Diaz Jr (32-1-1, 15 KOs) next when they posted this message on Twitter on September 9th:
“Who wants to see this fight!? #GarciaDiaz.”
Ryan Garcia vs. Joseph Diaz Jr. is an interesting match-up. Both guys fought in WBC ordered 135-lb title eliminators recently, and after winning their fights to become WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney’s mandatory challengers, they decided not to fight him.
Once the 2012 U.S Olympian Diaz Jr. realized that he could make more money fighting Ryan Garcia than Haney, he decided he would bypass his title shot.
Some boxing fans think Diaz Jr is afraid of Haney because they don’t understand how a fighter could choose not to take advantage of an opportunity to challenge for a world title after winning a title eliminator. But with Diaz, it’s about the money.
What good is it for him to go after a young champion in Haney, who isn’t widely known when he can make more money fighting Ryan Garcia? The popular King Ryan has 8.7 million followers on Instagram and 1.05 million followers on YouTube.
With that many followers, Ryan is making huge noise against anyone he faces, and that’s a win-win for Jo Jo Diaz.
Ryan Garcia vs. Joseph Diaz Jr. fight being finalized
“Everything is going good. That’s the fight that I want, and I think Ryan Garcia’s camp and Ryan Garcia’s side wants the fight as well,” said Joseph Diaz Jr. to K.O Artists Sports.
“We’re doing everything possible to make the fight happen. We’re in the talks and we’re getting everything finalized.
“So hopefully by the end of this week or next week, we can finally get it finalized and announced,” said Jo Jo Diaz on his huge clash against Ryan Garcia.
“This is my biggest fight to date, and I’m ready to shut this kid up. It’s part of the build-up and it’s just motivating me because I know the experience that I have.
“I know this fight is going to be a big, big fight for both of us. There’s going got be a lot of people watching and I just got to be at my best.
“Just motivating myself and I’ve known Ryan since he came up. Now that we’re in business, it’s a whole different story. I just got to go out there and do my thing and come out on top because I got to show all my experience.
“I think after Ryan’s tenth fight, he said he wanted to fight me too,” said Diaz Jr. “I already knew it was in the works. It was just a matter of when.
“Right now, this is ‘the when’ and we’re going to try and make it happen,” said Jo Jo Diaz Jr. on his possible fight against Ryan Garcia in November or December.
This is a risky fight for Ryan Garcia, as he doesn’t have anywhere near the same experience as Jo Jo Diaz. With that said, Ryan’s devastating punching power and hand speed more than makeup for his lack of experience.
As we saw in Ryan’s recent fight against 2012 Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell, he’s got the power to take out anyone.
Fight date possibly coming soon 🤯
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) September 15, 2021
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