During a training run with former stablemate Gennady Golovkin, Joel Diaz Jr. agreed to a bet: Last one back to their Big Bear facility has to wash the other guy's underwear. Diaz, 23-1 record with 19 knockouts, learned a harsh lesson that day, and got another education in June 2017 when he walked into Regis Prograis' danger zone with his hands low and suffered a second-round TKO.
After a 16-month hiatus, the Palmdale, Calif. lightweight finally is set to resume his career on Oct. 6 at California's Cache Creek Casino, where he'll have a new trainer (Max Garcia has replaced Abel Sanchez), a new style, and a new ring strategy.
We spoke in-depth to this excited and motivated prospect on this week's Ringside Boxing Show.
Before that, we get our news fix from expert analysts Travis Hartman, Rizwaan Zahid, and John J. Raspanti on a wide variety of current events, including Ray Beltran's loss to Jose Pedraza in a WBO title defense, the sky-high future of Ghana's Isaac Dogboe, Kovalev's decision to rematch Eleider Alvarez, the bizarre walkout by heavyweight Curtis Harper, who promptly exited the ring after the opening bell in an apparent salary protest, the Eddie Hearn-fueled rumor that Tyson Fury is getting cold feet about fighting Wilder, an analysis of the officials who were named for the Canelo-Golovkin rematch, and the news that Team Pacquiao is negotiating to stream Manny's next fight on DAZN.