It wasn’t easy early, but in the end Gary Russell Jr successfully defended his WBC featherweight belt for the third time tonight in the Maryland main event of Showtime’s split site doubleheader. Young JoJo Diaz gave a very game effort in defeat.
Gary Russell Jr (29-1, 17 KOs) opened the first round more aggressively than usual, using his power jab to push Diaz back for the first half of the frame. JoJo Diaz (26-1, 14 KOs) tried to work the body a bit, but his volume overall was too low to win the round thanks to the very high volume of jabs coming back from the defending titleholder. He came out even more aggressive in the first minute of the second. It might not have been the best plan though as Gary seemed to punch himself out briefly, allowing JoJo to do some really good work of his own. His body work carried the round for me. Russell picked his shots better in the third in a nice rebound round where Diaz was mostly kept defensive. The challenger did still get some nice body work in towards the end of the round though.
The champ added some lateral movement to his game early in the fourth, but the Golden Boy promoted challenger slowed that down momentarily with some truly great and ripping body work. I gave him the round to even it at 2-2 despite Russell turning it on in the last thirty seconds to land some flashy shots. There is no doubt that Diaz won the fifth round. He stayed on the front foot the entire time and worked hard, especially downstairs. The Maryland local didn’t have much in response. Though the sixth round was fought similarly in terms of territory, Russell handled it much better. He kept his combinations flowing. Really, that seemed to be the key at the even halfway point. JoJo Diaz was guard up defensive whenever Russell punched in any sort of volume, giving Gary those exchanges by default.
Never was that fact more clear than in the seventh round. JoJo kept up the foot pressure and cut the ring off well, but Russell combined moving his hands and slipping off the ropes well to easily take the round. When Russell punched, Diaz did not. The formula for a successful title defense was as simple as the titleholder moving his hands at a high volume. The challenger also faced difficulties getting his work off in the eighth round of a fight with rapidly shifting momentum. By the end of the ninth it was very clear that Gary Russell Jr had figured JoJo Diaz out. The pressure and body attack had been neutralized by jabs and lateral movement while the titleholder flurried with his own combinations. They weren’t necessarily landing clean consistently, but Russell’s work was largely the only thing happening at all for most of the last three rounds.
JoJo surprisingly took the tenth though. Gary Russell Jr’s punch output was down and that allowed Diaz to free up his hands to go back to the body. The house fighter responded by reverting to the strategy that made the fight even in its first half by going inside. That seemed dumb, but it worked anyway. He got the better shots off in the eleventh. JoJo came out with the appropriate fury in the twelfth and final round for a fighter needing a finish. He did great work, but he didn’t find the end he needed.
I scored this fight 115-113 for Gary Russell Jr. While that is a very close card, I also think I scored basically every round for JoJo Diaz possible. I don’t think on a rewatch that I could come up with a JoJo Diaz win or even a draw despite only needing a single round to change the result. Official cards came back 115-113 like me and then 117-111 twice for Gary Russell Jr, all reasonable scores.
There was no post-fight interview due to the need to switch to the main event in Toronto.
