On Saturday, December 4, Devin “The Dream” Haney (27-0, 15 KOs) and Joseph “JoJo” Diaz Jr. (32-2-1, 15 KOs) faced off in a Lightweight title bout that would see Haney looking to successfully defend his title for the fourth time since winning the interim title in September 2019.
Diaz looked to taste gold again after losing his Super Featherweight title on the scale in February of this year. The bout looked to provide further clarity into the stacked Lightweight division.
Diaz, fighting for the third time in 2021 and the fourth time in a 12-month span, last fought Javier Fortuna in a hard fought and well earned UD in July. In that bout, Diaz earned a WBC interim Lightweight title (even though both Haney and Lopez already held a unique WBC Lightweight belt at the time), which ultimately earned him the opportunity to face Haney.
Instead, Diaz and his team elected to face who they perceived to be the bigger fight in Ryan Garcia. Garcia, sustaining a hand injury which required surgery, was pulled from the fight originally scheduled in November, which left Diaz without an opponent.
In stepped the (disputed) WBC Lightweight champion, Devin Haney. In Haney’s last fight he survived a late scare to secure what was otherwise a dominant win over Lightweight mainstay Jorge Linares. In that fight, Haney answered multiple questions, showing he could fight back from adversity and engage in an offensive minded fight against a top-tier opponent.
Diaz entered the ring with a belief that Haney hadn’t experienced an opponent of his caliber, and believed his bout with former 130 pound champion Tevin Farmer would prepare him for his title clash with The Dream.
Although a competitive bout, Haney proved to be an entirely different puzzle to solve.
In the first round, it was Haney who was pushing the pace, putting together shots to the head and to the body. Haney completely controlled the action, landing at will while neutralizing any attempts of offense Diaz had to offer.
The second round saw Diaz enter the center of the ring, clearly trying to remove the distance between him and Haney. Even so, Haney continued to find success keeping the challenger at bay with jabs and effective body work. Diaz certainly found more success in the second, but Haney ultimately controlled the action.
Into the middle rounds, starting in the fourth Diaz found some success with a couple of body shots and forward pressure. But almost without exception Haney was generally more active offensively, landing combinations around and through Diaz’ peak-a-boo guard. Diaz, although walking forward, didn’t throw his usual number of punches, likely trying to mitigate the counter punching of Haney.
The story was relatively consistent throughout the fight, with a few moments of variance. Predominantly, Haney controlled the action with diverse offense from a distance, working the head and the body. Diaz, however, was able to eliminate the distance for moments of the fights, landing some significant shots on the champion. Notably in the seventh round when Diaz seemingly stunned Haney, revealing a smile from the champion in what often acts as a concession that a fighter felt the shot.
The latter rounds of the fight contained likely the best action with the ninth round acting as the most exciting of the fight. Haney rocked Diaz with an uppercut following some of Diaz’s best work to that point. After being rocked, however, Diaz landed a strong right hook which seemingly rocked the champion as well.
In the final round, Diaz likely needed a knockout to win the fight. The challenger came out firing, rocking Haney at least twice with a pair of left hands in the first minute and a half. In the end, Haney was able to survive yet again on way to winning a well deserved and hard fought unanimous decision.
Ultimately, these two combatants continued a trend in the Lightweight division which pits top fighters against one another. With Lopez being defeated by Kambosos, Gervonta Davis and Isaac Cruz on Sunday, and Lomachenko and Comey facing off next weekend, we can only hope that the winner’s of all of these fights continue to face one another.
Kambosos, the now unified champion who was in attendance, had this to say to Haney following the victory:
“Now we can talk.”
