On Saturday night, Joseph Diaz Jr. (31-1-1, 15 KOs) and Shavkat Rakhimov (15-0-1, 12 KOs) fought to a twelve round majority draw at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California.
The IBF super featherweight title was only at stake for Rakhimov – because Diaz was 3.6-pounds overweight on Friday.
As Diaz lost the belt on the scales, the IBF title will remain vacant. One judge submitted a scorecard of 115-113 for Diaz Jr., which was overruled by two scores of 114-114.
The fight headlined a Golden Boy Promotions event, which was streamed live on DAZN.
The former champion started slow. Rakhimov was throwing a lot of combinations and taking the fight to Diaz.
As the fight played out, the workrate of Rakhimov began to decline – with Diaz picking up the pace in the second half of the contest.
Sensing that he might be behind, Diaz rallied hard in the final few rounds by landing accurate combinations to pile up points with the judges.
After the scores were announced, Diaz was far from happy with the outcome.
He felt that he had done enough to win the fight.
“I’m a little upset. I felt I had done enough to win the fight,” said Diaz.
“It was a close fight. It wasn’t my best performance. I didn’t make weight. I lost the belt on the scales. I want to apologize to everyone. I want to apologize to all my fans. It was a mistake on my behalf. No excuses, but I’ll be back. Rakhimov threw a lot of combinations. But a lot of them landed on the gloves. I felt I threw more shots and landed more body punches. I thought I should have won the fight.”