?I asked my father, ?Do you know what sparring is?? He said, ?I think that?s when you fight in the ring.? I said, ?I?m going to get my butt kicked???
Fighters come in all shapes and sizes and embody all temperaments. Some are sullen. Some are like sunshine on a cloudy day. Undefeated featherweight Joseph ?Jo Jo? Diaz Jr. (17-0, 10 KOs), the southpaw from South El Monte, California, is one of the latter.
On Friday, October 23, at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California, in a fight televised live on Boxeo Estelar on Estrella TV, Jo Jo gets it on with Ruben Tamayo (23-6-4, 15 KOs), from Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico. We talked about the fight, but we also talked about the fighter and the man.
Unlike the fighters in a thousand screenplays, for whom boxing was an escape from a dead-end existence, Diaz came from a stable home with a loving mother and father and sisters and it was baseball, not boxing, that was his favorite sport at first.
?I played baseball since I was four years old,? he told Boxing.com. ?I was a very good baseball player. I made the all-star team every year. I was a pitcher. I was a catcher. I was an outfielder. I was a first baseman as well. But I was mostly a pitcher. I had a great curveball and location. In my freshman year my varsity coach wanted me to play baseball and we ended up winning and coming in first place. In my tenth grade year my varsity coach wanted me to play varsity again, but during that time I was already boxing and I started loving boxing more than baseball and he made me make a decision whether I wanted to play baseball or if I wanted to box. It was a very tough decision. I loved both sports but I just felt like I love boxing more. I knew that was my passion and what I was destined to do, so I told the coach I was just going to quit baseball and focus my time on boxing. Ever since then it?s been a dream come true. I?m a 2012 Olympian. I signed with Oscar De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions. It?s been a great ride.?
Baseball?s loss was boxing?s gain, which is as it should be when the stars align.
?I started boxing when I was 11 years old. The reason why I started boxing was because I used to get picked on and bullied because I was such a small kid, and I was very nice and fragile, so a lot of the bigger guys tried to take advantage and I couldn?t take it anymore. I asked my father if he could teach me some things, as far as defending myself, and he said he didn?t know anything about fighting. So he took me to a local boxing gym, the South El Monte Teamsters Youth Boxing Club. Since then it?s been the love of my life and I still train there to this day.?
There is something magical about stepping into a boxing gym for the first time. The sounds and smells and sense of purpose are infectious. But experience, however personal, is rarely universal.
?My first impression was actually kind of scary,? Jo Jo recalled. ?Because when I walked into the gym the first time, one of the bullies who used to pick on me, he was training there and he was a boxer as well. When I first saw him, I didn?t even want to walk inside the gym because I knew he was going to start some problems. My father was with me at the time and I thought he was going to be my guardian angel and protect me. So I walked in and this guy came up to me and said, ?You think you?re tough now? You want to fight? Let?s spar.? I had no idea what sparring was, so I told him, ?You know what? Give me a week and I?ll spar you.? I asked my father, ?Do you know what sparring is?? He said, ?I think that?s when you fight in the ring.? I said, ?Oh my God. I?m screwed. I?m going to get my butt kicked.? And my dad ended up telling me, ?You know what Joseph? If you can just wait it out we?ll go through the fundamentals and how to attack the guy.? And he started reading up and watching YouTube videos. One of the main things he taught me was to throw a lot to the body ?cause eventually that?s going to bring him down. So a week passed and eventually I start sparring this guy and I started digging to the body and went up top and I made him bleed and I made him cry. Ever since then, man, it just brought joy to me knowing I could defend myself. That?s just how I love the sport, because I know the bully who would pick on me can?t pick on me anymore. After that I guess the bully told them I?m a pretty good fighter, and after that everyone became my friend.?
Although he turned pro in 2012 and has had just 17 professional fights, the men he has fought, starting with 5-2 Vicente Alfaro in his debut, have a combined record of 234-113-14. Rather than start easy, it looks like Diaz was thrown into the water to see if he could swim.
?I knew Alfaro was a tough competitor,? he said. ?But me, my father, my manager, and Oscar De La Hoya knew what I was capable of doing. Oscar De La Hoya saw me compete in the 2012 Olympic Games and he knows I?m a great fighter and that I can defend myself very well. We don?t want to fight guys who have negative records. I want to constantly keep growing every time I fight. I want to fight guys who have that experience so I can gain that experience, because I know it?s going to pay off in the long haul. When I do compete for a world title shot I will be 110 percent and I will be ready for that fight without a doubt.?
But Diaz first needs to get by Ruben Tamayo. I asked if he and his father have studied tapes of tonight?s opponent.
?Me and my father watched a couple of YouTube videos of him and we know he?s very tall. He?s five-ten I believe and he?s a southpaw as well. He?s kind of awkward in there and tries to be rangy. So we?ve been training with guys who are five-ten and are rangy and fast and kind of awkward too. I feel that I?m ready for Ruben Tamayo and whatever he brings. My game plan is to go in there and cut off the ring and work on the inside and make sure I break him down and try to get him out of there.?
Nothing compares to being a boxer. It?s not only a profession, a way to advance oneself. It?s also an identity. I asked Jo Jo how that identity has defined his life, separate and apart from what he does in the ring, now that he?s no longer the little bullied kid from South El Monte.
?I think it?s made me a better person. Not only am I a boxer and a fighter, but as I realized throughout the years, I am a role model and inspiration to all the kids in my community and to all the kids that train in my gym. So I always have to stay sharp. I always have to be disciplined and grounded. I have to keep on the right path because I know that all these kids are watching me. They look up to me and want to be like me, so I gotta set the record straight and set the right path for them so they can walk the same path as me and be successful in life.?
