You can add Joseph Diaz Jr. to the shortlist of disgruntled Golden Boy Promotions fighters.
The junior lightweight contender recently went on Sirius XM’s Fight Nation radio show to discuss his title fight against Tevin Farmer on the Demetrius Andrade-Luke Keeler card Jan. 30 in Miami. When asked about his thoughts on his promoter, Diaz expressed dissatisfaction.
“I would say not too happy, not too happy, man,” Diaz (31-1-0, 15 knockouts) said. “I would say after the Gary Russell (featherweight title) fight (in 2018) they (Golden Boy) didn’t really promote me or do anything as much as they should.
“They gave me a another world title fight against Jesus Rojas, but I just felt that they started to treat me like an opponent, started to treat me like I’m not the fighter that [has] the talent like I do.”
It’s the latest sign of discontent from within Oscar De La Hoya’s promotional stable. Things became icy between cash cow Canelo Alvarez and De La Hoya, as they barely acknowledged one another in the lead-up to Alvarez’s bout against Sergey Kovalev on Nov. 2. Around the same time, Ryan Garcia engaged in a war of words with his promoters before cooler heads prevailed and Garcia was pacified with a lucrative new contract.
Most recently, former junior lightweight titleholder Andrew Cancio spoke out against Golden Boy ahead of his title-losing bout against Rene Alvarado. Afterward, Golden Boy cut Cancio from its roster.
Diaz didn’t mince his own words. The former Olympian truly believes he has been neglected after coming up short against Russell.
“With Jesus Rojas, they had me fighting on Facebook Watch, a brand new network where hardly anybody is going to be watching that,” Diaz said. “I had a good purse with Gary Russell Jr. and with Jesus Rojas I had a really sh– purse, and I accepted it because I knew that I had lost and that I had to work my way up.”