How Jojo Diaz battled the boxing business and won
Jojo Diaz is in a better place mentally and emotionally, heading into his next boxing bout against Javier Fortuna. Here’s how he overcame his struggles.
It’s easy to pick apart a fighter’s performance inside the boxing ring. Mistakes are made in the moment, and a skilled opponent has a way of messing up the best-laid plans, but the unknown factors of a boxer’s personal life often have a bigger impact than most realize. Numerous events played into the majority draw between Jojo Diaz and Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov in February.
After the fight, Diaz was criticized for his performance, but he took major heat before the fight began. The night before the bout, he came in nearly four pounds overweight. Missing weight is seen as unprofessional, but missing it by that much draws dismay and anger from fans, pundits, and fellow fighters. Diaz had all those parties against him when he stepped off the scale before the Rakhimov fight.
The animosity didn’t stop when the fight was over. Diaz was raked over the coals some more in the post-fight interview, but he had enough at that point, and his frustration showed. A certain amount of criticism is fair, but there were more factors in play than most were aware of. Fighters are human, and their personal problems don’t go away just because they have a fight on the horizon.
For Diaz, life’s difficulties were compounding and affecting his boxing performance. Diaz recently appeared on the DAZN Boxing Show (h/t DAZN.com) and discussed his personal struggles with mental health. They impacted his performance against Rakhimov along with other circumstances.
“I think part of it was stress, but I mean, there’s a lot of factors that played into me not making weight,” Diaz told FanSided. “To COVID. I took a year layoff. My fiancée was pregnant at the time. So you know, I was really just focused on her being okay. We’re eating. We’re enjoying ourselves. The gyms weren’t open, so I gained more than I usually do during my offseason because of that. So I mean, there was a lot of factors that played into it.”
Diaz insists that he trained hard for Rakhimov, but his body didn’t respond as he tried to shed the extra pounds.
“I should have made the weight, but unfortunately, my body just couldn’t,” explained Diaz. “I really, really still trained my a** off, and I did the most that I possibly can do to try to make the weight, but my body just gave up on me.”
Before the Rakhimov fight, Diaz’s problems surfaced in the media. There was a DUI charge in July 2020, followed by news that he signed with MTK management a month later. After that, his former management group disputed his new management contract.
There was a lot of weight on Diaz’s shoulders, and it caused fissures in his mental and emotional wellbeing. Looking back, it’s not hard to connect the dots. Anxiety with his business dealings, along with the impending responsibilities of fatherhood, manifested in unhealthy ways.
Millions of people struggle with anxiety and depression, but the attention that professional athletes receive unfortunately means that their issues play out in public. That adds a whole different dimension of pressure that’s unknown to most people.
Jojo Diaz had his problems play out in public, but his business dealings were a prime source of stress that he was able to conquer
“I mean, mental health is a lot, man,” said Diaz. “With anxiety, depression, sadness, people talking down on you causes a lot of trauma with you, man. I just personally just feel that me just being myself and me just doing what I love and me just focusing on what I need to do to better myself in the now makes me more positive and makes me think about the future, and makes me more alert about doing things and being in a positive mindset.”
Diaz learned to deal with his troubles in a positive way. The biggest remedy was surrounding himself with people who loved him while eliminating those dragging him down.
“And making sure that I’m cutting just all the negative influences and all the distractions, cutting all that s**t out,” said Diaz. “Because none of that truly matters. What truly matters is what makes you happy and what what you’re living life for.”
Coming into his July 9 contest with Javier Fortuna, Diaz is in a much better place in all facets of his life. He’s centered on being a father and a fighter. Diaz’s family and boxing are his passions, and he’s filtering out the former negative influences.
The act of boxing is grueling enough. Putting your body through torture in order to better absorb and overcome beatings in the ring to have your hand raised at the end is an arduous process to endure. Only a select fraternity of combat sports athletes really know what that experience feels like and the toll that it takes. The unseen damage the sport takes is on the business end. In some ways, the cutthroat business dealings of the fight game can be worse mentally and emotionally than the physical fight.
From Diaz’s perspective, the grind of the business side of things wore on him for years.
“Oh man, I was dealing with some manager issues my whole entire career, and the crazy thing is, man is that I’m the type of person that really has a genuine heart and a genuine soul, and I’m a very loving person,” stated Diaz. “So I always think that people have the same soul as me and people have the same best interest as me as I do to them. But some people don’t, man, and you always got to be alert now.
“I thank God that I got to the point where I started being alert. I started being more observant and started being more understanding of my career and my finances, where I knew something was up. I finally, you know, said enough was enough. I finally leaped out and reached for help, and I got the help that I needed. I was able to get rid of those toxic people that have been just leeching off of me and getting me for my pockets and not for my best interest.”
Since the Rakhimov bout, Diaz has found perspective and balance. He braved through tough times and ended up a better person on the other side. Diaz steps up in weight to fight Fortuna on DAZN for the interim WBC lightweight title. He’s got a new obstacle in front of him but is better equipped to handle the challenges in and out of the ring.
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