Joseph Diaz Jr. knows he won’t have any difficulty finding another left-handed opponent in this 130-pound title fight.

Diaz managed to defeat Tevin Farmer and won the IBF junior lightweight championship from him in his last bout. But Philadelphia’s Farmer was elusive and didn’t bring their fight to Diaz, who is also a southpaw.

The champion understands that he’ll have to fight to keep Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov off him in his first title defense Saturday night in Indio, California. That will benefit fans, according to Diaz, because it’ll make for a much more entertaining encounter than the Farmer fight.

“I feel like this is gonna be a very, very entertaining fight because it’s gonna be an action-packed fight,” Diaz told BoxingScene.com. “It’s gonna be a guy that applies a lot of pressure, a guy that has a lot of knockout power and wants to dictate the pace by throwing a lot of shots. And with me as well, I like that, too. I like throwing a lot of body shots, I like to apply pressure, I like taking control, so I feel like it’s gonna be a more intriguing fight, more action-packed fight than the fight with Tevin Farmer.”

The 28-year-old Diaz defeated Farmer by unanimous decision – 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113 – in their 12-rounder last January 30 at Meridian at Island Gardens in Miami. Farmer (30-5-1, 6 KOs, 1 NC) had an immediate rematch clause in his contract, but their second fight didn’t happen because the deadline for scheduling it expired, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tajikistan’s Rakhimov (15-0, 12 KOs) is the mandatory challenger for Diaz’s title. The 26-year-old contender will fight for the first time since stopping South Africa’s Azinga Fuzile (14-1, 8 KOs) in the eighth round of their IBF elimination match in September 2019 in East London, South Africa.

Diaz (31-1, 15 KOs), a 2012 U.S. Olympian from Downey, California, has noticed an aggressive, active fighter while studying Rakhimov, who is trained by Freddie Roach.

“This is a fight that I know I’m not gonna have to go chasing him,” Diaz said, “like I was with Tevin Farmer, where Tevin Farmer is just elusive, defensive and trying to move. This guy is gonna wanna bring the smoke and apply a lot of pressure, so it’s gonna be a very, very offensive fight. I feel like it’s gonna be an all-out war because I’m gonna go out there showing my talent, showing my offensiveness, but also showing my defense and my skills and my lateral movements.

“But I also wanna show my power in there, too. And I know that’s what he brings to the table, him throwing a lot of straight shots, left hands to the body, tries to throw looping left hands. But like I said, man, I don’t think anything he brings to the table is gonna be able to get me out of my element.”

DAZN will stream Diaz-Rakhimov as the main event of a Golden Boy Promotions card at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino (8 p.m. EST; 5 p.m. PST). Brazil’s Patrick Teixeira (31-1, 22 KOs) will make a mandatory defense of his WBO junior middleweight title against Argentina’s Brian Castano (16-0-1, 12 KOs) in the 12-round co-feature.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.