SANTA MONICA, California – Joel Diaz has been at this long enough to know when he’s sending the most prepared finished product of a fighter to the ring.
And that’s precisely the way he feels as he nears directing his World Boxing Association junior middleweight titleholder Israil Madrimov to the main-event stage at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles on Saturday night against unbeaten three-division champion Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs).
While the world has seen the two-handed power and vicious finishing methods of Nebraska’s Crawford, Uzbekistan’s new titlist Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KOs) is far lesser known.
As Diaz knows from inheriting Madrimov and many of his Eastern European neighbors, including light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol and former unified junior featherweight champion Murodjon “M.J.” Akhmadaliev, a few years ago, the 29-year-old Madrimov is an accomplished amateur who sought a title fight in his pro debut and who also possesses double-barreled, ambidextrous abilities.
“Israil is so complicated in the ring. Believe me, it’s hard to adjust to a fighter who knows how to make adjustments every second,” Diaz said. “Defensively, he’s great because he’s so strong.
“He throws punches when he knows he’s going to land them, and when he lands, he hurts.”
Diaz ordered some rapid-punching left-handers for sparring sessions, along with bigger punchers.
“He hardly got hit. His reflexes and eye coordination is really good, and the thing that really raises my confidence is this guy is 99.9 percent disciplined. … These guys aren’t like the American or Mexican fighters who are often dealing with things away from their discipline,” Diaz said. “This guy, beside his religion, is disciplined on his nutrition, his conditioning, his boxing. This guy makes my job very easy, and when he’s in the ring, he dominates and reads things very well. He knows when to make changes.”
While Diaz has long been fond of Crawford, since the time the young fighter arrived at Diaz’s Indio, California, gym to train alongside current Hall of Fame two-division champion Timothy Bradley Jr., the trainer says Crawford’s move up from welterweight to attempt becoming a four-division champion is a truly daring step.
“Honestly, if Terence Crawford can beat this guy … yes, [Crawford’s] always been on my list as the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world, but if he can pull this off this time and beat my boy, I promise I’ll take my hat off and say, ‘There’s nobody out there better than Terence Crawford,’” Diaz said.
“Because we’ve put up a great boxing plan for him, and it’s not going to be easy to beat Israil.”
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