Official press release: Former world lightweight champion Juan Diaz (33-1, 17 KOs) has has signed a promotional pact with Golden Boy Promotions. Im excited to be on the Golden Boy Promotions roster and I cant wait to get back in the ring with Oscar and his team behind me, said the 24-year-old 'Baby Bull.' Ive gained a lot of experience over the last couple of years, in and out of the ring, and I cant wait to prove to boxing fans that Im the best lightweight in the world. Diazs first fight under the Golden Boy Promotions banner will be announced shortly.
I'm very curious whether the first fight will be actually a rematch with Campbell... or he'll fight another GBP fighter, Joel Casamayor! WAR!
Well... I've just read an article on DHB in which Schaefer was asked about a rematch between GBP fighter Casamayor and DKP fighter Campbell... and based on what he said, there's a better chance for a Campbell-Diaz rematch...
This content is protected LOS ANGELES, March 25 - Truly one of boxing's young superstars, former world lightweight champion Juan Diaz (33-1, 17 KO's) has thrilled fight fans for years with his aggressive style and willingness to take on all challengers. Now, as Diaz gears up for his second run at a world title, he has enlisted Golden Boy Promotions to lead him to the biggest fights possible in the coming years. "I'm excited to be on the Golden Boy Promotions roster and I can't wait to get back in the ring with Oscar and his team behind me," said the 24-year-old "Baby Bull". "I've gained a lot of experience over the last couple of years, in and out of the ring, and I can't wait to prove to boxing fans that I'm the best lightweight in the world." President of Golden Boy Promotions, Oscar de la Hoya, continued "I don't think there's a more exciting young fighter out there than Juan Diaz and I'm glad we're finally working together. We've got big plans for Juan and we can't wait to start putting him into the mega fights he deserves to be in." "Pardon the pun, but Golden Boy Promotions is the "Gold Standard" when it comes to boxing promotion and I'm confident that this is the only team that can take Juan to where he needs to go in this sport," said Willie Savannah, Juan Diaz' manager. "I respect Oscar de la Hoya and Richard Schaefer a lot and they've always been straight with me, something you don't see too often in this game." Although just 24-years-old, Diaz is a 34 fight veteran, winning 33 bouts since turning pro in 2000, the Houston native made an immediate impact on the boxing world with a relentless forward charge that always made for entertaining fights. In 2004, Diaz won the WBA Lightweight World Title with a 12 round unanimous decision over Mongolian Lakva Sim. After five successful defenses, Diaz added the WBO belt to his trophy case with an eighth round stoppage of Brazilian superstar Acelino Freitas in April of 2007. Six months after the Freitas victory, Diaz stopped Julio Diaz in nine rounds to add the IBF Lightweight World Title and though he dropped a close split decision to Nate Campbell in his last bout on March 8th, Diaz is gearing up for a big surge in the second half of the year. What makes all of these accomplishments in the ring even more impressive is what Diaz has been doing outside the ring at the same time. He is currently studying to get his undergraduate degree at the University of Houston and will start law school at the University of Houston in January of 2009. Diaz's first fight under the Golden Boy Promotions banner will be announced shortly.
Go for Casa first . . . then the rematch. Casa and him belongs to GBP anyway. If Arum can make his own boys fight each other why can't GBP do the same.
I like Diaz and hope he does well. I do wonder if his post graduate school will leave him enough time to train properly and allow him to focus like he should for boxing at this level.
No surprise here. Golden Boy is the perfect promotional company for Diaz - certainly better than Don King Productions. I expect Diaz to get his titles back within the next year. I would probably pick him over Campbell in a rematch and I wouldn't have any hesitation in picking him over the rest of the guys at lightweight (Casamayor, Santa Cruz, Katsidis, Khan, Pacquiao, David Diaz, etc). I might pick Joan Guzman over him though, since I believe he'd have better stamina at 135 than he does at 130.
Diaz is a great guy... It's good that they finally signed with GBP... However I never really believed that that Don King was the source of all the Diaz vs. King sh*t. After Savannah himself suggested Diaz to sign with DK, Juan got two unification fights and earned more in 3 fights than in his whole career before that... And it was the same Savannah who wanted to leave DK... I think the problems started when the division ran out of DKP and non-Top Rank/non-GBP fighters... so the only way Diaz could've been able to get a meaningful fight (4th title: Diaz - TR, The Ring champ: Casamayor - GBP, all-out fighter Katsidis - GBP, Pacquiao, Marquez, Guzman: GBP) the situation with King wasn't good anymore... so Willie tried to get Juan out of the deal and it all started with accusations instead of trying to get a buy-out deal or something... Why would DK get rid of his fighter after he made him a 3-title unified champ and came close to be a PPV fighter? Of course when all that sh*t started, DK did everything to hurt Diaz so to hurt Savannah... Announcing that the deal is over with them on the day of the weigh-in - so Diaz was a DK fighter no more, while Campbell was still with King on Saturday... and DK event, judges etc... and all the other thing that distracted Diaz, ended up losing... But hey, Diaz still got his HBO fight and in Mexico, that's something most Mexican-American boxers wants to do once in their career... He lost, DK pulled it off, but I think in the end Diaz earned the respect of the wole Mexican community... they screamed his name even after the scorecards were announced... and now he's gonna get the best opportunity a pro boxer can get: to show he can still do it! At 24, with GBP, a great comeback can make him even bigger!
