Jean Pascal’s protégé, Joel Diaz Jr. (20-0, 16 K.O.) will return to the Bell Centre ring on January 30 to fight on the undercard of the highly-awaited grudge match between Pascal and Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev. The young and talented boxer from Palmdale, California intends to send a message to everyone involved in the lightweight division and to win over the hearts and minds of Quebec boxing fans as he will face veteran Mexican boxer Abraham ‘Cholo’ Gomez (22-11-1, 11 K.O.).
Diaz Jr., who has recently hired a new trainer, is convinced that at age 23, he now has all the tools to continue moving up the rankings in his weight division. “Working with Chris has been awesome. I’m learning and growing so much as a boxer and a man. I have to thank my manager Mike Criscio, Jean Pascal and Greg Leon for making this happen. Now I’m correcting all of my mistakes, training harder than ever, and the result will speak for itself when I stop Abraham Gomez at the Bell Centre, my new crib north of the border.”
His new trainer, former IBF heavyweight world champion Chris Byrd, considers that he has great potential. “Joel is special. After working with him for just the last three months, I already consider him a member of my family. He’s a quick study, who applies instruction immediately. The boxing world needs to be on notice because Joel Diaz Jr. is the future of the lightweight and junior welterweight divisions. After this light work on January 30th, he is ready for whoever.”
“I’ve been promoting Joel for almost two years now and all he’s been doing is dominating, taking care of business, and knocking out everything that my partners at DiBella Entertainment and I have put in front of him. I don’t expect this pattern to change on January 30 and look forward to Joel proving he is what our team knows he is, the next lightweight champion of the world”, added Jean Pascal.
