In his BoxRec profile photo, Juan “Baby Bull” Diaz wears three boxing belts, one draped over each shoulder and another around the waist.
Nothing but leather, metal and jewelry. He’s smiling and raising both fists, with a giddy Don King grabbing the right one.
Yet that wasn’t quite the scene, and those weren’t the belts, that Diaz really wanted. The goal was ripping the WBO light heavyweight belt out of Juan Manuel Marquez’s hands.
Didn’t happen. Twice.
“I said, ‘If I can’t beat the best, why be in this? I want to be the best,’” said Diaz, who will face Mexico’s Cesar Vazquez on Saturday night at Casino del Sol. “At that point in time he was the best, and I couldn’t beat him, so I was fed up and I was tired. That was it for me.”
Marquez first beat Diaz by TKO in February 2009 and then again by unanimous decision in July 2010. So Diaz retired, at age 27, and, after helping a buddy in a machine shop with shipping one day, decided to start a trucking company.
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Life wasn’t bad. Sending his trucks all over the lower 48 states, Diaz was busy and enjoying his new life. But then he noticed something was missing, something more intangible than a belt.
“The most exciting thing was sitting down at lunch having a talk with my customers,” Diaz said. “And I felt I was too young not to make a comeback, so I did.”
After 2½ years out of the ring, Diaz returned in 2013 at age 29. Then he quickly moved back up the ladder by winning five fights, four of which were held in his home state of Texas, setting himself up to face Takahiro Ao on a bigger stage at Las Vegas in May 2015 during the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight weekend.
That’s when Diaz learned he would be making yet another comeback. He tore his left rotator cuff during a training session for the Ao fight, throwing a left hook to the body of his opponent, who then jammed it back, tearing up Diaz’s shoulder and biceps.
For an athlete who needs every ounce of strength in those areas, it was a significant setback.
“It isn’t easy to come back from,” said Top Rank VP Carl Moretti, whose outfit represents Diaz. “It’s just like it is for a quarterback or a baseball pitcher. It took him a good nine or 10 months to come back.”
Diaz still isn’t all the way back, either. After nearly a year of rehab and training, Diaz beat Fernando Garcia in March but said the shoulder was only about 30-40 percent at that point.
“We had to readjust my left shoulder because it wasn’t going back as far as I wanted it to,” Diaz said. “I had to get comfortable throwing my jabs and body shots because I basically had a new arm.
“I had to fight this and learn and teach the arm that it was OK to punch and to go back as far as I need to.”
Now, Diaz estimates he’s up to 70-80 percent, and he’ll find out for sure Saturday against Vazquez (27-3-0, 16 KOs), a 30-year-old from Mexicali.
“He’s challenged for world titles and it’s not going to be easy,” Diaz said. “But if it’s easy — if I fight a regular fighter — I’m not going to get ranked.”
Or, in his case, get any further down the comeback trail. Diaz could be up next for a world title or an elimination bout, Moretti says, but he has to beat Vazquez.
“He’s had no problems in training and we expect a green light, if he wins, to show that he’s good,” Moretti said. “That’s what we’re looking for Saturday night.”
Also on the televised (Unimas) portion of Saturday’s card, undefeated Phoenix light heavyweight Trevor McCumby (22-0, 17 KOs) will face Dion Savage (12-9, 6 KOs) of Flint, Mich.
The undercard will include five fighters from Tucson:
- Super featherweight Jensen Ramirez (5-2-2, 1 KO) will face Gerardo Avila (3-9-2, 1 KO) of Nogales, Sonora.
- Super middleweight Albert Alvarez will make his pro debut against Yomi Heredia (0-1) of Albuquerque.
- Super featherweight Jesus Arevalo (1-0, 0 KOs) will face Manuel Lopez (1-1-1, 0 KOs) of Phoenix.
- Super bantamweight Mike Martinez will make his pro debut against fellow Tucson fighter Jesse Ruiz (1-3-2, 1 KO).
