At the Banc of California Stadium arena in Los Angeles, California, the co-main fight of the boxing evening from the Golden Boy Promotions promotion company ended, in which the Dominican Javier Fortuna and the American Joseph “JoJo” Diaz played the vacant title of the interim WBC lightweight champion.
The boxers started the fight cautiously. Diaz, who made his debut in the lightweight division, tried to break through to the short distance, and Fortuna decided to work as the second number. The American looked better in the exchanges, aiming blows at the opponent’s body.
The fight turned out to be quite dirty: the boxers clinched a lot, hit on the back of the head and struck after the referee intervened. In the third round, after a head-to-head collision, Diaz had a cut near his left eye. In the next three minutes, the American revived and threw a combination of three blows to the body from the start. However, in the same round, the referee removed a point from Diaz for another blow to the back of the head.
In the sixth round, Fortuna decided to change his strategy and started working as an aggressor, increasing the number of thrown punches. The fight was close, but Diaz was more successful in exchanges.
In the ninth three minutes, Diaz shook Fortune, after which the Dominican got on his bike. At the end of the next round, the American delivered several powerful overhands, consolidating his advantage.
Realizing that he was losing the fight, Fortuna became more active in the final rounds, but was unable to cause serious damage to his opponent. At the end of 12 rounds, the judges unanimously gave the victory to Diaz.
Result of the fight: Joseph Diaz defeated Javier Fortuna by unanimous decision (117-110, 116-111 and 115-112)