Ulysses Diaz coulda been a contender in the boxing ring. He wasn’t. But better than that, he became a champion in life.
Which is worth more than all the belts in the world to the 43 year old from Miami, who retired after a BYB Extreme bare-knuckle win over Szymon Szynkiewicz in August. It wasn’t a career that people will be writing about 100 years from now, but maybe they should, because Diaz wrote a heck of a story for a man who wasn’t even supposed to be here.
It’s also one that is embraced by his biggest fan and perhaps the toughest fighter in the family – his 11-year-old son Ulysses Jnr, who recently knocked out osteosarcoma. It was a win that father and son wanted more than anything, and with everything going so positively, it was time for dad to walk away from the sport.
“I’m 43,” said Diaz. “I feel like I’ve had a decent career, but along the way I’ve met great people and been able to make a great network and good opportunities out of it. So I want to be able to be 53 – 10 years from now – and have a good conversation without stuttering and drooling on myself. Because when you grow up in boxing gyms, you see that all the time, and it’s more from the training than it is from the actual fight. So, at my age, I want to spend more time with my family. I want to use the doors that I’ve been able to open, and I feel great.”
Diaz concluded his career with a 5-3 bare-knuckle record that includes a three-second knockout of Daniele Benedetto in 2020, and a 14-1 traditional boxing record with 13 knockouts. It makes you wonder why he didn’t stick with the sweet science.
“Everybody knows that there’s no money in boxing unless you get yourself to like 20-0, 22-0, and then maybe you’ll get the big fights,” he said. “It’s really political when it comes to boxing. These guys that are promoters worth fighting for – they got their guys when I started my career. I went pro at 35. I’m 43 now. So along the way, you got all these kids that were fighting in the amateurs and made names for themselves. I was the guy that came in and just did it on my own – my way. I ended up with a good record, but still, it was just that you’re not doing anything in boxing.”
Diaz had been in boxing gyms since he was six years old, but as he got older he enjoyed fighting outside of the ring as much as he did inside it, ultimately leading to a two-and-a-half-year stint in prison. When he got out, his childhood friend, the rapper Pitbull, took him under his wing and gave him plenty of food for thought when it came to life. In 2016, Diaz decided to put the gloves on again, and in 2017 he made his pro debut with a first-round stoppage of Ramon Jimenez.
Becoming a local attraction in Florida, Diaz piled up the wins, losing only once via majority decision to Gilberto Rubio in 2019, and while he wasn’t fighting killers, he was entertaining the fans and getting his opponents out of there – usually within the first three rounds. He wasn’t getting bites from bigger promoters, though, leading to him starting to mix bare-knuckle bouts in with his traditional boxing forays. And along the way, he began reaching people with his personal comeback story.
“It was never really a goal or something I was going for,” Diaz said. “It was along the way. I know where I came from and I know that I always needed some type of motivation, to see somebody like me with my background and coming from where I came from being able to do something with themselves in their life, whether it’s fighting or not, just turning their life around. So, along the way, I kept it real with everybody, and I’ve always tried to keep a positive mindset and be positive around people, and I guess I spread that message.”
He did. Then everything fell apart on his 42nd birthday in March 2023, when his son got diagnosed with cancer.
“It really is the toughest thing that I think anybody could go through – getting some news like that,” Diaz said. “Again, it happened to my 10-year-old son, so we wanted to keep him in a positive mindset as much as we can. We never showed any negativity or any naysay around him. Everything was always just positive, and he kept a positive attitude through it. He was very optimistic through everything, and thank God everything went great, and he is here to tell his story, and he’s here to motivate and inspire people along the way, too.”
Uly Jnr beat cancer, and his father was so intent on willing him to that victory that he got into a fist fight in January of 2024 – and after knocking out Mumia Abu Dey-Ali in 73 seconds, he ran a marathon. Seven days later.
“The longest I had ever run was two half marathons – probably a year or two before that,” he said. “I got into running late in my career and I started loving it. I run real slow, but I like just running for distance.”
Twenty-six point two miles is a lot of distance – especially the week after a fight, but Diaz got out there and finished the Clearwater Marathon in five hours and 16 minutes, thinking of his son every step of the way.
“I just like doing hard things, and I feel like it’s another notch on my belt doing a marathon,” he said. “So when I got to mile one through 17, I’m not going to say it was easy, but it wasn’t terrible. But from mile 17 to 26, it was hell. My ankles were killing me; my feet were killing me. I could hardly even walk. And then I ran into a nice group of people that were running the marathon, too, and you can’t find a better crowd than people that are running the marathon. They’re super positive, and they help you out even if you don’t know them. And they ran with me for the rest of the time, and everybody finished together. It was great.”
It was another chapter of the story that got even better when Diaz got the news that Junior was cancer-free.
“He’s had to do scans every three months, so those moments were still scary when you go back and do the scans,” he said. “But he’s been cancer-free completely, and it’s great, man. He is a great kid; happy kid. He’s active. He’s playing sports again, so it’s awesome to see him like that.”
You can hear the pride in Diaz’s voice when he talks about his son, and rightfully so. It really makes it hit home that today, fighting doesn’t even matter anymore. But will he miss it?
“What do I miss the most?” he said. “It’s funny to say, but being retired, I’m stress-free because when you’re fighting, there’s stress on you at all times because you could get the call at any time that the fight’s coming up. So you’ve got to be ready at all times. But it’s a double-edged sword where I’m happy that I’m stress free from that, but, at the same time, I kind of miss that stress. I work well under the stress and it’s a funny feeling where I know I’m not going to get that call. But sometimes you think about it. What if I jump back in there for one more?”
Diaz laughs, and I ask him if when BYB matchmaker Mel Valenzuela’s phone lights up, may it be him?
“That’s right. He knows.”
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