Juan Diaz and Golden Boy Promotions, together at last.
Eighteen months after manager Willie Savannah announced that Diaz, then a free agent following the expiration of his contract with Main Events, would sign with Golden Boy and then reneged a week later to sign Diaz with Don King, Diaz inked a promotional contract with Golden Boy on Tuesday.
Financial terms of the deal, which included a signing bonus, were not disclosed but Savannah told ESPN.com that the agreement goes through December 2010 and calls for Diaz to fight eight times — twice more this year and three times in each of 2009 and 2010.
“And I am hoping it lasts through Juan’s career,” Savannah said of the deal.
Diaz (33-1, 17 KOs) is just 17 days removed from losing his trio of 135-pound world titles on a decision to Nate Campbell in a major upset in Cancun, Mexico. The fight marked the end of Diaz’s rocky four-fight road with King.
Although Diaz, 24, earned about $3 million with King, who secured him two unification fights, King and Savannah clashed from the start. By the end, they weren’t speaking to each other and King had taken to lambasting him in public.
Diaz didn’t want to dwell on the past.
“I’m excited to be on the Golden Boy Promotions roster and I can’t wait to get back in the ring with Oscar [De La Hoya] and his team behind me,” Diaz said. “I’ve gained a lot of experience over the last couple of years, in and out of the ring, and I can’t wait to prove to boxing fans that I’m the best lightweight in the world.”
Golden Boy boss De La Hoya said: “I don’t think there’s a more exciting young fighter out there than Juan Diaz and I’m glad we’re finally working together. We’ve got big plans for Juan and we can’t wait to start putting him into the mega fights he deserves to be in.”
De La Hoya recently purchased part of the Houston Dynamo of Major League Soccer, so his company’s presence in Houston made signing the city’s top active fighter a natural.
Savannah recently signed two of his amateurs, lightweight Hylon Williams and Ricardo Tristan, with Golden Boy and is relieved to have Diaz with the company also.
“Very relieved,” said Savannah, who said he regretted signing with King. “A lot of other promoters made proposals to sign Juan and I wanted to go with each of them, but after meeting with [Golden Boy CEO] Richard [Schaefer] in Las Vegas at the Pacquiao-Marquez fight [on March 15], I felt pretty comfortable. We’ve been talking for the past couple of weeks. I have a good feeling about it. I felt very comfortable with Richard. I told him over the weekend we better wrap this thing up because you know how I am. It’s a good fit I think.”
Diaz suffered a cut on his left eyelid in the loss to Campbell and needed nine stitches. Savannah said he hopes Diaz will be able to return in July or September for his first fight for Golden Boy followed by another bout in December.
“Pardon the pun, but Golden Boy Promotions is the gold standard when it comes to boxing promotion and I’m confident that this is the only team that can take Juan to where he needs to go in this sport,” Savannah said.
