For Christopher “Pitufo” Diaz, Saturday night isn’t just about trading punches with fellow Puerto Rican Henry Lebron—it’s a fight against the narrative that he’s always been second-best.
With pride and redemption on the line, Diaz steps into the ring at the Coliseo Roberto Clemente in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for a 10-round junior lightweight bout against undefeated Puerto Rican fighter Henry Lebron, broadcast live on DAZN.
This fight was originally set for June but delayed, giving both fighters more time to prepare. At Thursday’s press conference, it was Diaz, with his bald head gleaming and his beard neatly trimmed, who captured the moment with words that could’ve been pulled straight from a boxing movie. Speaking first in English and then in Spanish, the 30-year-old Diaz let the world know this wasn’t just another fight for him.
“I have been working so many years,” Diaz, 29-4-1 (19 KOs), said. “Been in second place for so many years. If you see my losses, they are to ex-world champions. Two of my losses—Shakur Stevenson? No one wants to fight him right now. The other one? Emanuel Navarrete.”
For Diaz, the journey has been anything but smooth. Once an undefeated prospect, he challenged Masayuki Ito for the vacant WBO junior lightweight title in 2018, falling short in a decision loss that began a string of near-misses. A year later he faced Shakur Stevenson and suffered another defeat. Despite a brief resurgence with a victory over Jason Sanchez in the Top Rank bubble, Diaz couldn’t reclaim his momentum, getting stopped in the 12th round by Navarrete in 2021. A razor-thin majority decision loss to Isaac Dogboe further dimmed his star, effectively ending his run with Top Rank. Since then, Diaz has stayed active but hasn’t faced anyone near the caliber of his past opponents. Diaz remains undeterred.
“I am coming to fight,” he declared. “They know I am coming to fight.”
Meanwhile, his opponent Henry Lebron, 19-0 (7 KOs), brings confidence and momentum to the ring despite a 13-month layoff since his majority decision win over William Foster III. The 27-year-old Lebron managed by Peter Kahn and now appearing under a Matchroom Boxing card for the first time, kept his comments brief and professional, hinting at his own hunger for validation. “As you said, [Eddie Hearn], this fight was supposed to take place in June, but due to an injury, it couldn’t happen. Now we are here, and we have prepared really well,” Lebron said, dressed simply in a white t-shirt.