Over the weekend, we got a nice card from Goldenboy Promotions on DAZN. There was a lot of good action from what I saw, no Tom and Jerry fights, as his excellency would say. I missed the first two fights, which looked pretty entertaining based on the highlights. However, even though I tuned in halfway through the card, I was still able to see the fights that were important to me, which included the Regis Prorais vs. Jo Jo Diaz fight and, obviously, Oscar Duarte vs. Kenny Simms Jr.
The Regis Prorais vs. Jo Jo Diaz was a damn good fight! This was a super entertaining fight between two former world champions. Both guys are looking to get busy in the Welterweight division and fight their way into a money fight. They fought it out in what was a slugfest. Prograis won by coming forward and being the more aggressive fighter. Jo Jo held his own and got his combinations off in spurts, but just didn't let his hands go enough to win the fight. It looked like Jo Jo was looking for something Prograis wouldn't give him and allowed Prograis to outwork him in the fight. I don't see either one being a world champion again, but they both proved that they still have good fights to give to the sport. Jo Jo showed he still had enough fight in him to dog it out through a bad cut, and Regis showed that even though the punch resistance isn't that great, he's still willing to do whatever he feels he needs to do to win a fight.
Oscar Duarte vs. Kenny Simms Jr was also a good and competitive fight. I was thoroughly entertained. In the end, Duarte was too big, too powerful, and too tough for Kenny Simms Jr and ended up beating Simms in his hometown, Chicago. Before this, I've seen Duarte fight a couple of times and knew he was a good fighter, but even in the loss, I was impressed by seeing the skill of Kenny Simms Jr in the ring. After the first round, I honestly thought Duarte would get the knockout at some point, but Simms started touching him up, gained some confidence, started moving around the ring, and made the fight interesting. But even with all the skill that Simms showed, Duarte kept the pressure on Simms even when he did hit, kept his work rate up, and was just too powerful for Simms. Simms didn't have enough to keep Duarte off of him, but he made it a close fight and won some rounds, even though Duarte was the clear winner.
Looking forward to seeing where all of these guys go from here. Prograis won his crossroads fight and mentioned a rematch with Devin Haney. I don't know about all that, but I wouldn't mind seeing him in a gatekeeper fight with an up-and-coming name. Hopefully, it will make for a nice payday for him, which I feel he deserves.
And Duarte is steadily climbing the ranks. I don't think he's quite championship level yet with some of the other guys in the division, but he's a damn good fighter. I think a fight between Duarte and Rio Valenzuela would be a banger, but we'll see what the future brings us... 🥊