JoJo Diaz hopes to seize moment in title fight vs. Devin Haney

JoJo Diaz had probably earned a bit of good luck.

Over the past 18 months, all of his fights have been different from originally advertised. So he didn’t mind when Devin Haney, the WBC lightweight champion, was ready to step in for the injured Ryan Garcia to fight him Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden.

“I’ve paid all my dues my entire career, fighting the best opponents possible,” Diaz said. “I’m ready for this moment.”

Diaz has been on a career roller coaster since his biggest moment as a pro, when he survived a horrible cut to outpoint Tevin Farmer and win a 130-pound world title in January 2020. A rematch was supposed to follow, but the coronavirus pandemic changed everyone’s plans and Diaz ended up in a mandatory defense against Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov this year.

That turned out to be somewhat of a disaster, as Diaz missed weight, lost his belt on the scales and then turned in a lackluster performance that led to a majority draw. Suddenly he had no belt and no clear shot at one.

But an opportunity opened up when Garcia withdrew from his bout against Javier Fortuna, and Diaz happily stepped in. Diaz won a decision over the dangerous Fortuna, capturing an interim title in the process.

Then it was supposed to be Diaz against Garcia, two fighters who compete under the Golden Boy Promotions umbrella and long had been circling each other. But Garcia suffered an injury and had to pull out of a second consecutive fight.

Enter Haney, who long has been calling out everyone in the division with nothing to show for it. He’s been caught up in the mess created by the WBC that even the most locked-in boxing fans can’t really untangle, and no one really knows who the champion is in the lightweight division.

Regardless, Diaz comes in as the most credible opponent of Haney’s career.

“There’s no pressure,” Haney said. “I’m going to go in there and do what I do. We studied him. I feel like we know JoJo better than even his own coach and his own dad. We know what he’s gonna do, we know what he’s gonna throw. We know the mistakes he makes, the habits he has.”

There’s suddenly a huge amount of interest in the fight, which will headline a DAZN card starting at 5 p.m. Last Saturday, George Kambosos Jr. pulled off a massive upset, taking Teofimo Lopez’s three title belts.

Kambosos is in Las Vegas this week, hoping to parlay his moment into an undisputed fight with the winner of Haney-Diaz. Both would surely welcome the challenge.

The fight is Diaz’s second at the 135-pound limit, having moved up partly because of the opportunity to fight Fortuna and his weight miss against Rakhimov. That’s one of the reasons he’s a significant underdog against Haney.

“I know this is the moment I’ve prayed for my entire life,” Diaz said. “I’m not going to cut any corners. I’m built the way I’m built, now I’m going to go out there and execute what I have to do.”

Contact Jonah Dylan at jdylan@reviewjournal.com. Follow @TheJonahDylan on Twitter.