I guess we can file two potential really intriguing PPV undercard fights on one show as too good to be true. Top PBC prospect Jorge Lara has dropped out of his fight with top Golden Boy prospect JoJo Diaz from what was going to be a featherweight title eliminator due to injury this morning. The card still has Diego De La Hoya versus Randy Caballero at least though. What does the show look like now in terms of quality? Read on.
Joseph “JoJo” Diaz’s (24-0, 13 KOs) new opponent in the co-main event is unbeaten but lesser unknown Mexican prospect Rafael Rivera (25-0-2, 16 KOs). Rivera isn’t a completely obscure replacement. He is considered a pretty good prospect on the Mexican domestic scene. Most recently the 23 year old last fought in June against gate keeping journeyman Ruben Tamayo, a shared opponent for he and JoJo Diaz. Tamayo was shut out over ten rounds by Diaz while Rivera blew him out in two, so there is that.
Still, some of JoJo’s recent opposition like Manuel Avila and Jayson Velez are much, much better than anything Rivera seen. As a former US Olympian and probably the single best Golden Boy prospect in a fairly mediocre stable of them, Diaz has gone from a modest favorite to a pretty heavy one here. Sure, Rivera could be a live dog, but we went from definitely having one to maybe having one in the co-main event. By the standards of short notice replacements, Rafael Rivera is an excellent replacement, but it is still a disappointing development. No word yet if the WBC will still honor this as an eliminator.
The middle fight of the PPV is still definitely a good one, thankfully. Former titleholder Randy Caballero (24-0, 14 KOs) will meet unbeaten prospect Diego De La Hoya (19-0, 9 KOs) and his famous last name. At 24 in 2014, Caballero won a belt down at bantamweight over Stuart Hall abroad in Monte Carlo. It was a good performance and the potential launch of a top fighter, but unfortunately it was not to be when weight issues both caused Caballero his belt and a year and a half in the sport due to a canceled defense. Now 26, the still undefeated yet former belt holder is 2-0 up at super bantamweight and looking to make his mark.
23 year old Diego De La Hoya, cousin to Oscar, is making a massive step up here. He is going straight from mid level journeyman and club fighters to a real contender and former world titlist. He isn’t even some super blue chip prospect either. While young Diego has improved a ton from his earliest fights, he is still very defensively liable and lacks real pop to his shots. He does work on offense really well though with a variety of smooth combinations, but can that be enough? This is a really good fight simply for asking this sort of question from a matchup of unbeaten young fighters.
Opening the show will be Ryan Martin (19-0, 11 KOs) and Francisco Rojo (20-2, 13 KOs) at lightweight. Golden Boy really needs good young fighters so they are trying to build one here in Martin. The kid has bounced around from PBC cards, to K2 cards, to Top Rank cards though, so we will see if he sticks at Golden Boy. Rojo is a good Mexican domestic fighter, but he shouldn’t be enough to trouble a real prospect if Martin is one. I guess that is the question here, but this is a pretty mediocre fight either way.
What is much better than the opener is the great 8 PM Eastern start time for this fight. I really wish we could get more shows at that hour. HBO PPV will have the broadcast and it will run you $79.95 for the HD stream. I will have a preview up for the main event by tomorrow night.
