Diaz misses weight, stripped of title

Rakhimov can still win vacant 130-pound belt

Joseph Diaz Jr. was drastically overweight for his first junior lightweight title defense against Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov at Friday’s weigh-in and was stripped of the IBF world title.

Contracted to make the division limit of 130 pounds, Diaz instead weighed in at 133.6. Rakhimov was 129.8 pounds. Because Diaz was so overweight he was not permitted to even try to lose the excess pounds, per the rules of the California State Athletic Commission, which will not allow a fighter to attempt to cut weight if he is more than two pounds over the contract limit at the weigh-in.

Diaz and Rakhimov, the mandatory challenger, are due to meet in the main event of the Golden Boy Promotions card on Saturday (DAZN, 8 p.m. ET) at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California.

The fight will go on but with Diaz’s purse taking a big hit. Per California commission rules, he will be fined 20 percent of his $500,000 purse. Of the $100,000 being deducted from his purse, $50,000 will go to the commission and $50,000 will go to Rakhimov, who will add that money to his $100,000 purse.

According to a Golden Boy Promotions spokesman, both fighters will attend a Saturday morning weight check. Diaz agreed to do the morning weight check even though he is no longer fighting for an IBF title, according to Golden Boy. IBF rules mandate fighters have to do a morning weight check on fight day. Neither boxer can be more than 140 pounds.

If Rakhimov (15-0, 12 KOs), 26, a Tajikistan native fighting out of Russia, wins he will claim the vacant title. If Diaz wins, the belt will remain vacant.

“Joseph Diaz Jr. does not respect the belt, but I do respect the belt,” Rakhimov told Fight Freaks Unite through a translator. “This shows that Joseph did not take this seriously.”

Diaz (31-1, 15 KOs), 28, of South El Monte, California, who won the belt by unanimous decision against Tevin Farmer on Jan. 30 in Miami, had never previously weighed more than 129.75 for a fight.

But it was the second time Diaz missed weight for a title bout. In August 2018, he was scheduled to challenge Jesus Rojas for his secondary featherweight belt but weighed in a half pound over the 126-pound limit. The fight went on with Diaz winning a unanimous decision but Rojas kept his title.

In the co-feature, junior middleweight world titlist Patrick Teixeira (31-1, 22 KOs), 30, a southpaw from Brazil, will make his first defense against mandatory challenger Brian Castano (16-0-1, 12 KOs), 31, a former secondary titlist from Argentina. They both made weight. Teixeira was 153.4 pounds and Castano was 153.8.

Here are the weights for the rest of the card:

Ronny Rios 121.4, Oscar Negrete 121.6

Shane Mosley Jr. 161.6, Cristian Olivas 161.6

Bektemir Melikuziev 170.6, Morgan Fitch 170.8

Azat Hovhannisyan 122.8, Enrique Bernache 123

Victor Morales Jr. 125.8, Rodrigo Guerrero 125.8

Dalis Kaleiopu 133.6, Eduardo Sanchez 135.6

There were no such weight issues for the weekend’s other notable show, the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card, which will take place Saturday night (ESPN and ESPN Deportes, 10 ET) inside the conference center inside the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Here are the weights for that card, whose original main event of Joe Smith Jr. versus Maxim Vlasov for the vacant WBO light heavyweight title was postponed on Thursday because Vlasov tested positive for Covid-19:

Richard Commey 136, Jackson Marinez 135.5

Adam Lopez 126, Jason Sanchez 126

Jared Anderson 249, Kingsley Ibeh 276

Jahi Tucker 144, Eric Rodriguez 144.5

Eric Puente 137, Sergio Vega 136

Troy Isley 157, Bryant Costello 158

Floyd Diaz 117, Fernando Macias 118

Photo: Tom Hogan/Golden Boy Promotions