Diaz Misses Weight, Ineligible To Win Rojas’ WBA Title

So soon after losing to WBC featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr., Joseph Diaz Jr. was set to challenge for another world title, but now those hopes have been dashed.

Diaz was supposed to challenge for Jesus Rojas’ WBA “regular” featherweight title on August 11 on a Golden Boy Boxing card streamed only on Facebook. The day before the title fight was set to take place, both Diaz and Rojas took to the scales, but Diaz was over the 126-pound featherweight limit, thus making him ineligible to win the title, even if he were to defeat Rojas.

The 25-year-old Diaz weighed at 126.6 pounds while the champion Rojas weighed in at 125.8 pounds. The fight will continue forward as the main event, headlining a four-fight card which can be seen below.

Jesus Rojas vs. Joseph Diaz Jr.:

Damon Allen vs. Jonathan Navarro

Ferdinand Kerobyan vs. Jose Rivera

Aaron McKenna vs. Rolando Mendivil

This would have been Rojas’ first true title defense as a world champion since he was recently elevated from interim champion to “regular” champion. Rojas won the interim title last year in his most recent fight when he knocked out once-beaten Claudio Marrero. The current WBA “super” featherweight champion is Leo Santa Cruz but a fight between the “regular” champion and “super” champion won’t likely happen until 2019 at least as Santa Cruz is linked to a potential unification fight against Russell.