With a thorough beating of a nails-tough opponent, Jo Jo Diaz ended a three-fight losing streak with a unanimous decision win over Jerry Perez in a welterweight bout disputed over ten rounds at AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas on Saturday, July 8.

Diaz had an uneven start of the fight, scoring at will with his uppercuts but finding himself in the middle of effective counterattacks by Perez in the early going.

In the third round, Diaz had Perez in trouble for the first time, nailing him with punches from all angles and forcing him to clinch his way out of trouble.

Perez grew increasingly frustrated and never found his groove again, allowing Diaz to land at will for most of the final rounds of the bout. Diaz connected with power from a variety of angles but was unable to put Perez in serious danger as the fight became a one-sided affair down the stretch.

Gregorio Alvarez and Ignacio Robles scored it 97-93 and Raul Caiz 98-92, all for Diaz, who improves to 33-4-1 and scores his first win since his July 2021 win over Javier Fortuna in Los Angeles. After that, Diaz lost his next three fights to Devin Haney, William Zepeda and Mercito Gesta.

Perez goes home with a 14-3-1 (11 KOs) record, including a mark of 1-3-1 in his last four bouts.

The fight was originally scheduled as a lightweight bout but was later changed after Diaz weighed in at six pounds over the limit.

Jo Jo Diaz (left) lands a left hook on Jerry Perez – Photo courtesy of Golden Boy Boxing

Diego M. Morilla writes for The Ring since 2013. He has also written for HBO.com, ESPN.com and many other magazines, websites, newspapers and outlets since 1993. He is a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and an elector for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He has won two first-place awards in the BWAA’s annual writing contest, and he is the moderator of The Ring’s Women’s Ratings Panel. He served as copy editor for the second era of The Ring en Español (2018-2020) and is currently a writer and editor for RingTV.com.

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