By Ricardo Lezama 
A pleasant surprise has arrived for those of us expecting Gabriel Rosado vs Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez tomorrow night. Instead of that original match-up, Joseph “JoJo” Diaz, this writer’s favorite boxer is now headlining the event with a possible replacement fight in the undercard.
Change of Plans
The sudden move up from co-main to main event happened as a result of Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez showing up incredibly overweight to his weigh-in with Gabriel Rosado. Rosado’s team provided “Zurdo” with the requisite time to dehydrate and lose the excess weight, but the effort proved futile. Understandably, Rosado exercised his right to withdraw from the event due to a sizeable weight (and power) advantage provided to Zurdo. Thus, the main event was canceled.
JoJo Gets A Shot To Headline Again
JoJo Diaz Fears No One – Why My Favorite Boxer
Diaz is an elite fighter who takes on anyone and can still pull off an upset or be a favorite. He’s an Olympic pedigree boxer who has been a former champion, schooled in the Southern California amateur circuit and a southpaw who can go to the body – what’s not to like?
First of all, most people would not immediately understand why “JoJo” would be my favorite boxer. Aside from an obvious Canelo or conventional P4P lister, Diaz is among those boxers whose string of recent fights have not been easy. While there are some relatively obscure names on the list, those fighters since his first Gary Russell defeat were all highly ranked and esteemed within the different IBF or WBC ratings.
His tenacious victory against Tevin Farmer showed me that his heart was in the right place and sport. The grit helped win him the 126 lb IBF championship belt. An always ambitious contender when not a champion, JoJo takes any fight, like the Haney and Zepeda bouts show. Despite losing both the aforementioned matches, Diaz is never blown totally out of a match.
In fact, in the Devin Haney fight, Diaz’ was able to rock him in the 12th round despite being the much smaller man fighting an elusive and hyper defensive boxer. The sheer fact that he won 5 rounds against someone who fights like an aerobics instructor was enough.
In this day and age, boxing has lost some of the edge that made for appealing fights via offensive output due to this hyper fixation on defensive prowess. Fans feel like boxers do the bare minimum to win a fight. Diaz gives us offensive with sublime technical detail.
Bounce Back
Joseph “JoJo” Diaz seems poised to make a comeback. Mercito Gesta represents the Phillippines in this bout while JoJo is a local SoCal favorite. Gesta may be overmatched with Diaz’ great experience and technical skill. Gesta, however, is no pushover since he has a substantial number of KO’s on his record
Oddsmakers have Jojo Diaz as a definitive favorite against San Diego based Mercito Gesta. We expect a clinical showing from Diaz from a tough competitor at CSULB’s Ampitheatre on 3/18/23. Although, taking the KO bet may not be a bad idea given Diaz’ headspace.