Joel Diaz is a world renowned trainer known for training Timothy Bradley. Bradley is set to return March 16th against Ruslan Provodnikov. However, this weekend in Atlantic City, New Jersey, one of Diaz’ other fights, Vicente Escobedo makes his return against Edner Cherry on the undercard of Adrien Broner vs. Gavin Rees.
Escobedo is coming off a loss to the man in the main event Adrien Broner. They fought last July in a fight where Broner disregarded the 130 lb weight limit. Broner is now at 135 lbs. Diaz feels weight advantage or not, Broner will be a tough out for anybody.
“With Broner, on top of the weight being an issue, Broner is just an elite type of fighter. Whoever steps in there against Broner, it’s going to take some fight, maybe double the best effort they have ever given to beat him,” Diaz told ThaBoxingVoice.com.
Escobedo-Cherry is one of the highlights of a not so amazing undercard for Broner-Rees. Most pick it as the fight of the night and Diaz agrees. “I know it’s going to be a war and you know. Escobedo has been in there with the (Robert) Guerrero’s and the (Adrien) Broner’s off the world and has always put up a good fight, so I expect the same against Cherry.”
With the recent cancellation of the co feature putting Johnathon Banks against Seth Mitchell in a rematch, HBO was left with one fight. One would think they would move the best action fight of the night on paper to the television slot. When Diaz was asked if he had heard anything about Escobedo getting HBO time, he stated, “From my knowledge I thought it was part of the contract, whether its highlights or full bout, I’m not sure but HBO was a part of the contract.”
The 130 lb division has notable names and vulnerable champions. Should Escobedo come out victorious, he throws his name back in the mix to possible land a title shot. Diaz likes the idea but has one fight on his mind that he hopes that can happen in the future for Escobedo. “There’s a fight I want to see. I’d like to see Vicente (Escobedo) fight Juan Carlos Burgos. Burgos is a really good friend of mine, if people want to see a good fight, I think that’d be one hell of a fight to watch and hope it can happen after this,” stated Diaz
With Burgos being denied his rematch with Rocky Martinez by the WBO, and Martinez already lined up to fight Diego Magdaleno on April 6th, Burgos is free for the time being should Escobedo win.
For full audio of this interview click here: http://thaboxingvoice.cogito24.com/floyd-mayweather-jr-vs-devon-alexander-ponce-de-leon-joel-diaz-thaboxingvoice-radio-t-v/9834
