Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz vs. Mercito Gesta will headline tonight’s DAZN fight card. The fight between Gilberto Zurdo Ramirez and Gabriel Rosado will not take place because the Mexican was 8 pounds over the agreed weight.
It’s a big step down for the 30-year-old former IBF super featherweight champion ‘JoJo’ Diaz (32-3-1, 15 KOs) from his last two fights against William Zepeda and Devin Haney at lightweight, but given that he lost both of those bouts, it’s understandable why his promoters at Golden Boy are matching him softly.
What seemed obvious about Diaz’s last two fights is that he doesn’t possess the size, power, or quickness to compete with the best at 135, and he needs to seriously think about moving back down to 130 if he wants to salvage his career before he takes too many more defeats.
If JoJo Diaz struggles against Gesta, that would be clear that he needs to get a nutritionist on the double to help him to return to the 130-lb division.
Ideally, Diaz would be better suited to fight at 126, which is the division he campaigned at from 2015 to 2018. Diaz was only beaten once at featherweight against a prime Gary Russell Jr in 2018.
Losing to Gesta could end the once-promising career of JoJo Diaz, unless he’s fine with being a journeyman fighter instead of a top contender.
The 35-year-old Gesta (33-3-3, 17 KOs) had been scheduled to fight Ryan Garcia last January, but Ryan changed his mind, opting to wait it out for his still unsigned fight against Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.
Gesta was a star in the making eleven years ago, but a one-sided decision loss to Miguel Vazquez seemed to end the potential that he had in 2012.
After that defeat, Gesta never regained the momentum he had earlier in his career, and he’s done little since, beating mediocre opposition and losing to Jorge Linares and Juan Antonio Rodriguez and fighting two a couple of draws against Carlos Morales and Carlos Molina.
Golden Boy Promotions has taken a lot of heat since their announcement yesterday of the Gilberto ‘Zurdo’ Ramirez vs. Gabriel Rosado fight as the main event.
The 37-year-old journeyman Rosado (26-16-1, 15 KOs) campaigns at middleweight, and he’s nowhere near big enough to be fighting a light heavyweight like Zurdo Ramirez (44-1, 30 KOs).
It doesn’t matter that Ramirez was just badly schooled by WBA 175-lb champion Dmitry Bivol last November; he’s still much bigger, stronger, and younger than Rosado, who has lost his last three fights.
