By Ian S Palmer
Featherweights Christopher Diaz of Puerto Rico and Jason Sanchez of Albuquerque, New Mexico are scheduled to battle it out over 10 rounds this Tuesday, June 23rd at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The bout can be seen live in America on ESPN and ESPN Deportes while fans in Canada can catch it on TSN. Diaz last fought in January when he beat Adeilson Dos Santos by an eight-round unanimous decision. Sanchez last fought in October when he stopped the same Dos Santos in four rounds.
The 25-year-old Diaz is 25-2 with 16 Kos. He lost a unanimous decision to Japan’s Masayuki Ito for the vacant WBO Super Featherweight Championship in July, 2018 and dropped a 10-round unanimous decision to Shakur Stevenson for the vacant WBO NABO Featherweight Crown in April, 2019. Diaz was born in Philadelphia, but the family moved to Puerto Rico when he was just a month old.
He turned pro back in 2013 after 187 amateur bouts and has boxed 134 rounds since. Diaz stands 5-feet-6-inches tall and has a 64-inch reach. He’s got pretty good power in his fists with a current knockout ratio of 59.3 per cent and likes to go to the body. Since turning pro he’s won the WBO NABO Super Featherweight crown and the WBO Youth Featherweight Title.
Diaz has fought numerous times on U.S. soil, but he hasn’t really faced an upper echelon boxer as of yet other than Stevenson. You may recognize some of his other opponents though such as Ray Ximinez, Fernando Vargas, Efrain Esquivias and Bryant Cruz. Diaz is an aggressive, action fighter who’d prefer to stop his opponent rather than leave it in the hands of the judges and that’s what makes him so fan friendly and he was named prospect of the year for 2016 by ESPN Deportes.
The 25-year-old Sanchez climbs into the ring with a mark 15-1 with 8 Kos. His lone loss was to Oscar Valdez by unanimous decision in a shot at Valdez’s WBO Featherweight Title last June 8th. Sanchez
has average power with a current knockout ratio of 50 per cent. He turned pro back in 2012, but has fought just 77 rounds since then. He’s been brought along relatively slowly and just five of his first 14 opponents had winning records.
Sanchez is 5 feet-6-inches tall with a 64-inch reach which matches up exactly the same as Diaz. He took a huge step up against Valdez last year and was dropped in the fifth round on his way to a wide points defeat. He did manage to win the vacant WBO Youth Featherweight Title in October of 2018 when he beat Jean Carlos Rivera via a 10-round unanimous decision. He also owns an eight-round unanimous decision victory over veteran German Meraz in March of 2018.
Prediction…
Sanchez and Diaz both fought Adeilson Dos Santos in their last fights with Sanchez stopping him and Diaz going the distance. Diaz has a better KO percentage but he’s gone the distance in his last four fights and lost two of them. Diaz needs to get back on track here but Sanchez could give him all he can handle. This should be a very close fight with Diaz just edging it out.
