Joseph Diaz

Joseph Diaz

Personal information
Nationality	Mexican/ American
Born	(1992-11-23) November 23, 1992
Height	1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Weight	125 lb (57 kg)
Sport
Country	United States
Sport	Boxing
Event	Bantamweight
Turned pro	2012
Coached by	Joseph Diaz Sr.
Updated on 29 July 2012

Joseph Pedroza Diaz Jr. (born November 23, 1992) from South El Monte, California is an American boxer who competed in the 2012 Olympics as a bantamweight and is the current NABF Featherweight Champion.

Career

Prior to the Olympic Trials, Joseph was the two-time reigning national champion at bantamweight. Diaz became the first American boxer to qualify for the 2012 Olympics by becoming a quarter-finalist at the 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships, where he defeated both 2004 Olympic silver medalist Worapoj Petchkoom of Thailand and former world championship bronze medalist Óscar Valdez of Mexico but lost to Lázaro Álvarez. He is left-handed and fights southpaw. As child he played baseball but took up boxing to learn self-defense. He is coached by his father. Díaz was the 2011 U.S. National Champion at Featherweight at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He attended South El Monte High School.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics (results) he beat Pavlo Ishchenko but ran into Alvarez in his second fight and lost again. Diaz made his professional debut in 2012 against Vincent Alfaro winning by Unanimous Decision in four rounds and also scored a knockdown in the fourth,then on February 2, 2013 Diaz would go on to fight Jose Ruiz of Puerto Rico and win by TKO on the undercard of Frankie Gomez vs Lanard Lane.

On May 9, 2015, Diaz defeated Giovanni Delgado via unanimous decision on the undercard of the Saul Alvarez vs James Kirkland fight. He stepped up competition against veteran Rene Alvarado in a fight televised on HBO Latino in July 2015 and on Dec. 18, Diaz Jr. defeated Hugo Partida and earned the NABF Featherweight Title.