After losing his IBF junior lightweight belt on the scales when he missed the weight limit, JoJo Diaz appeared to be headed toward the second loss of his pro career Saturday night against Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov. But a late rally allowed him to salvage an otherwise disappointing couple of days.
Diaz and Rakhimov fought to a majority draw in a fight for the IBF’s 130-pound title at the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California. Two judges scored the bout 114-114, while another had it 115-113 for Diaz. The belt remains vacant.
After Rakhimov (15-0-1, 12 KOs) controlled the action for the middle rounds, Diaz (31-1-1, 15 KOs) put some late pressure against the unknown contender to avoid the defeat. According to the CompuBox numbers, Diaz outlanded Rakhimov in the final four rounds.
Diaz connected on 31.5% of his shots but threw more than 200 fewer punches than Rakhimov, who averaged 79.5 punches per round.
Also Saturday, Brian Castaño overwhelmed Patrick Teixeira with pressure and scored a lopsided victory to win the WBO’s junior middleweight title.
Castaño won in a unanimous decision (120-108, 119-109, 117-111) to pick up one of the four major belts in the division.