Joseph “JoJo” Diaz is hoping for another shot at a world title. 

For that to even be a possibility, Diaz must get past once-beaten Richard Medina on October 21. The 10-round lightweight bout will take place at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, and will precede the main event featuring welterweight contenders Alexis Rocha and Giovani Santillan.

Both fights will stream live on DAZN (8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT).

Diaz (33-4-1, 15 knockouts), who was born and raised in the Los Angeles suburb of South El Monte, was a member of the U.S. Olympic team in 2012 and turned pro that same year. He suffered his first professional loss against Gary Russell Jr. in a bid for the WBC featherweight belt in 2018, but he would win the IBF title at 130 pounds by defeating Tevin Farmer in January 2020.

Diaz’s career then went off the rails when he moved up to lightweight to challenge current undisputed champion Devin Haney for the WBC title; Diaz lost by unanimous decision, then came up short in two subsequent fights against William Zepeda and Mercito Gesta.

Scaling back his level of opposition in an attempt to rebuild, Diaz finally broke the streak in his most recent fight, defeating Jerry Perez by unanimous decision on July 8.

Medina will be taking a significant step up in class to face Diaz. In his last bout on May 20, Medina defeated gatekeeper Juan Antonio Lopez by unanimous decision.

The 22-year-old Medina (15-1, 8 KOs), who resides in San Antonio, Texas, has won his last two fights since losing by unanimous decision to unbeaten featherweight Raymond Ford. 

Arely Mucino (Photo: Golden Boy Promotions)

Also on the Golden Boy Promotions card, Ring No. 3-rated flyweight Arely Mucino will face unbeaten Gabriela Fundora (rated No. 4) of Coachella, California, in a 10-round bout. 

Mucino (32-3-2, 11 KOs), who resides in Monterrey, Mexico, will be making the first defense of the IBF title she won in her last fight on October 29, defeating Leonela Yudica by split decision. The 34-year-old has also held the WBO and WBC belts on different occasions. 

Fundora (11-0, 4 KOs) last fought on April 8, defeating former world title challenger Maria Santizo by unanimous decision. 

Also fighting on the live-streamed card will be flyweight contender Ricardo Sandoval (22-2, 16 KOs) and unbeaten super middleweight David Stevens (13-0, 9 KOs). 

Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached at [email protected]

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