By David P. Greisman

Joseph Diaz Jr. continued his development by doing what a couple of other notable names have done at featherweight — defeating Ruben Tamayo.

Diaz beat Tamayo by unanimous decision, winning a shutout on the scorecards. All three judges saw the bout 100-90. The fight headlined a Golden Boy Promotions card from the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California.

Tamayo is no world-beater. He’d lost six times before, with four of those defeats coming against lesser-known opposition in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013. The other two losses were via fifth-round technical knockout against contender Jesus Cuellar last December and a unanimous decision loss to prospect Oscar Valdez this past June.

But Tamayo, for his limitations, wasn’t there to roll over. He tried to land, and did every once in a while, but much of the time Diaz was able to dodge or block shots, hit Tamayo first, fight at a relatively measured pace and turn up the volume at opportune moments. Diaz increasingly showed the gap in class between him and Tamayo as the fight went on.

Diaz, a 22-year-old who fought for the United States in the 2012 Olympics, improved to 18-0 with 10 KOs. He also was able to bring in a much more decisive victory than his close win over Rene Alvarado in July.

Tamayo, 26, is now 25-7-4.

In a televised swing bout, heavyweight Paul Ritter won a four-round unanimous decision over Relanzo Richard Jr. The scores were 37-36 (twice) and 38-35.

Ritter knocked Richard down twice in the second round, but he also had a point taken from him in the third for holding and hitting. That means the bout would’ve been a decision win for Richard if not for the knockdowns.

Alas, Ritter moves to 1-1 if you go by the announced records beforehand; BoxRec listed this as his debut. Richard is now 0-1.

Hailing from Indio, Calif. Marco Magdaleno (1-0, 1 KO) made his family proud winning his first professional fight by defeating Philip Bounds (0-1) via first round knockout.

 

"It feels so amazing to become a professional," said Marco Magdaleno. "I know I made my family and my hometown proud tonight. I am looking forward to the future, the sky is the limit for me."

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com