“Like my dad said, everything will fall into its place. You gotta give it time and you just have to give it patience,” said Diaz. “And look at what’s going on, man. Everything is falling into its place. We’ve been patient enough. So hopefully, everything goes well after this fight.”
Diaz turned pro in 2010 and fought twice, going 2-0 with one knockout. He trained for ten years under Felipe Avalos, Chris Avalos’ father/trainer. While they came up together, after Diaz signed with Boxing 360 in early 2011, he felt it was time for a trainer more experienced in the professional ranks. While the move may seem harsh, it’s par for the course in the sport. At the end of the day, a fighter, especially one making that difficult transition from amateurs to the pros, needs to find what is best for him. Enter Hector Vallardes, who bought Diaz a four-fight first round knockout streak. Vallardes trains “ShoBox” veteran Alejandro Perez out of the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, CA where Diaz trains. The two hit it off and off they went.
“[Vallardes] actually has been teaching me a couple moves,” said Diaz. “Felipe was a really good trainer. I loved him like a dad, I told him. But Hector, he was teaching me some new moves and how to fight like a pro. Hector is teaching me those punches and they go down. He is teaching me a lot of offense and defense. I feel more flatfooted. I feel more comfortable with my punches. I feel like they can come from any sort of angle and random. He showed me where to land my punches, where the point is to take them down. I am really grateful to have him.”
Diaz has a naturally deadly left hook. It’s his favorite punch and he throws it like it is but under Vallardes, Diaz is learning to enjoy the wonders of violent diversity.
“I have actually been working on my right hand also. One punch ain’t going to stop everybody,” said Diaz. “I’ve been working on my right hand and my right hook actually, the right uppercut. I am not just trying to rely on the left hook all the time. Even though that is my favorite punch, I want to work on just throwing a lot of punches and not just relying on throwing one punch.”
Diaz’s approach to training is a diligent one. Rather than roll out his whole repertoire every day, he will take a move or two a day and attempt perfection before moving on.
“If I like the move, I am going to continue to work on it for the day until I get it right,” said Diaz. “By the next day, I will have it down already and here comes another trick that I like and I will start working on it also.”
Vallardes is as specific as it gets with punch placement. Fans will yell, “Go to the body!” without really thinking that a fighter is targeting specific spots. Diaz has been getting lessons in specific pain application.
“That’s how he is, that specific,” Diaz says of Vallardes. “He tells me where exactly it is going to hurt. So he teaches me that. And like, before, we’ve trained the whole day where he tells me to hit where it will hurt and they won’t be able to get back up. Like I said, I am not going to rely on just one punch. Everybody is not going to fall with just one punch. So a lot more punches gotta come behind that, you know?”
In Diaz’s last fight, he stepped in class fighting Manuel Sarabia, a veteran of 16-33-10 and 10 KOs. Although Sarabia is an opponent, a fighter with that many fights is a test for anyone with only five fights. Diaz’s promoter, Dr. Mario Yagobi, asked Diaz to be careful heading into the bout. He should have told Sarabia the same.
“[Dr. Yagobi] told me ‘He’s going to give you a little bit of trouble because he is so advanced, because he has 65 fights or whatever.” Diaz explained. “I was like, ‘Alright. I’m not going to let it go to my head or whatever. So he was just, ‘Box him. Just try to box him. If the knockout comes, it comes.’ And it came, man. It came with a left hook and it was a wrap.”
36 seconds into the first round, Diaz landed his left hook and it was all over. It was the perfect way to end a busy year.
“[Boxing 360’s] promise was to keep me on my feet and keep giving me fights to get me up there as soon as they can. They are sticking to their word. Hopefully from here, it keeps going from here and getting better and better,” said Diaz.
While Diaz was already in shape for a fight before switching to this bout, he explained that staying in shape between bouts was a lesson learned long ago. Being ready for “The Call” is what it is all about.
“That’s the thing I don’t want to happen. Back in the amateur days, Silver Gloves, I had lost in State. The guy I lost to couldn’t make weight and they had offered me a month later to take his place for the Nationals. I had gone up on weight,” explained Diaz. “From there on, I said, ‘F**k that. I can’t take no more risks like that. What if they want me next week and I am really, really heavy?’ I’m not going to be able to do it, right? So I try to maintain my weight. I train every day, running every day. I train my ass off. Every day, I am at the gym. I try not to stay not too far away from the gym just in case they call me. I’ll be ready for anything.”
Diaz’s test is Guy Robb, a late comer to the sport who is undefeated, hungry and probably thinking the same thing Diaz is: “This is my shot.” Diaz, however, seems unfazed. To him, it’s all about being prepared for anything. His coaches scout the tape; he stays in shape and everything comes off of that.
“I know [Robb] is 7-0, three knockouts. He is shorter than me at 5’6” and that’s about it,” Diaz said of his opponent. “My coach and my dad have been watching his fights that are on YouTube.com. I watched a round or two to see how his movement is but I let my dad and my trainers work on that. Whatever they think I need to work on, whatever it is for me to beat him, then I will do it. Whatever they want me to do, then I am going to do it.”
Despite this being his first time in a televised co-main event, Diaz has been on camera before on “Solo Boxeo Tecate.” The fight was against Esteban Nichol. Once again, Diaz got his guy out of there in the first, only that time with the right hand. Diaz says he is unaffected by the cameras. The performance against Nichol seemed to prove him right.
“TV-wise, that’s not really what I am looking at,” he explained. “What I am looking at is to try and take him out and stand my ground, you know? It’s just me and him in the ring and I don’t want to get beat so I am going to try and do the beating, you know? I don’t really let that get to my head. If I do, our plans will go a whole other way. I try to stay clear-minded when I am up in the ring, just me and my opponent. I’ve gotta do what I gotta do and I don’t let the TV phase me or nothing.”
Obviously, an early win is always a good thing. At the same time, for his maturation as a fighter, Diaz needs rounds.
“That’s what I actually want. If I can take [Robb] down in the first couple of rounds, then I am going to take him down in the first couple of rounds,” explained Diaz. “If he is going to get tough with us, we are ready to go the distance. It is what we trained for.”
If anything, Diaz needs rounds so we all can see what Vallardes might have to say between them.
“To tell you the truth, since I been with him, it’s been all first-round knockouts,” said Diaz. “We haven’t had a chance to communicate in the ring. I am ready to hear him if we go the distance. Anything he tells me, I will try and go up there clear-minded. Whatever he tells me to throw, I am going to throw.”
Diaz comes into this bout with a clear idea of what he needs to do to win, what’s at stake and where he wants to go. The most promising thing here, beyond a left hook or a newfound right is that when the call came, he was a fighter ready to answer. Fighters fight and Friday night, that’s exactly what Joel Diaz Jr. is prepared to do.
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