Rising featherweight contender Joseph "JoJo" Diaz Jr., a 2012 U.S. Olympian on the cusp of a world title shot, will face Horacio "Violento" Garcia on Dec. 17 at The Forum in Inglewood, California, Golden Boy Promotions announced Monday.
The bout will serve as the televised co-feature on HBO's "World Championship Boxing" tripleheader headlined by the previously announced farewell fight for 51-year-old legend Bernard Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs), the former middleweight and light heavyweight world champion, who will end his 28-year career against Joe Smith (22-1, 18 KOs) in a 12-round light heavyweight contest.
"I have had a front-row seat to watch Joseph develop from an Olympian to a world-class professional fighter, and he is getting better each and every day," Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya said. "While JoJo will face one of his toughest challenges in Garcia, I am confident he comes out victorious and earns a world title shot in 2017."
The 23-year-old Diaz (22-0, 13 KOs), of South El Monte, California, will defend his regional belt in a scheduled 10-round bout and look to go 4-0 on the year. Diaz is coming off an impressive performance in a ninth-round knockout of Andrew Cancio on Sept. 17 on the Canelo Alvarez-Liam Smith HBO PPV undercard at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
"A world title has always been my goal, and Dec. 17 will be an incredible experience as I continue to pursue my dream of a being featherweight champion," Diaz said. "Garcia is an extremely tough guy, but I am hitting my peak right now, and there's nothing that's going to stop me."
Garcia (30-1-1, 22 KOs), 26, of Mexico, is coming off a 10-round spit draw with Erick Ruiz in a junior featherweight bout in May. Garcia's only loss came by 10-round decision in a featherweight bout against three-division world titleholder Hozumi Hasegawa in Japan in May 2015.
"Joseph Diaz may be undefeated, but he's never faced anyone like me," Garcia said. "I am looking forward to coming to Los Angeles Dec. 17, defeating Diaz and continuing my rise up the featherweight division."
Although it is not yet official, recently crowed cruiserweight titleholder Oleksandr Usyk (10-0, 9 KOs), a 29-year-old southpaw with a big personality, is penciled in to make his first defense against Bosnia's 32-year-old Damir Beljo (22-0, 18 KOs) in the opener.
On Sept. 17, Usyk, the 2012 Olympic heavyweight champion from Ukraine, traveled to Poland and won a unanimous decision against Krzysztof Glowacki to take his world title. By winning the 200-pound belt in his 10th professional fight, Usyk broke the division record for fewest fights needed to win a world title. He surpassed the mark held by Evander Holyfield, who won a cruiserweight world title in his 12th fight when beat Hall of Famer Dwight Muhammad Qawi in an epic 15-rounder in 1986.
The initial plan by HBO and K2 Promotions, which represents Usyk, was to have him make his first defense on Dec. 10 on the undercard of unified middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin's planned fight against secondary titleholder Daniel Jacobs.
However, when the Golovkin-Jacobs negotiations dragged on and could not be finished in time to have the card on that date, pushing it into next year, Usyk's fight was added to the Dec. 17 Golden Boy card.