Joseph ‘JoJo’ Diaz still has a burning desire to settle up old business with Ryan Garcia.  

BoxingScene.com has confirmed that the former IBF junior lightweight titlist and current top-ten lightweight contender will return to the ring on November 5. An opponent is not yet named for the occasion, though Diaz would love nothing more than to use the slot as a chance to reschedule a fight with Garcia in an all-California lightweight battle.

“I still want the Ryan fight. We have unfinished business,” Diaz told BoxingScene.com. “I saved him two times last year. He pulled out of the Javier Fortuna fight and I stepped up in weight and on short notice to fight him and I beat him.

“Then me and Ryan were supposed to fight last November and he pulled out with a hand injury. I went and fought Devin Haney, someone he never fought even when he had the chance to. Now that I have a fight date, I would love to fight Ryan.”

Diaz (32-2-1, 15KOs) has been out of the ring since a competitive loss to Haney (28-0, 15KOs) last December 4 in Las Vegas, a fight that came in lieu of Diaz’s scheduled bout with Garcia (23-0, 19KOs) last November 27. Garcia withdrew from the fight due to a hand/wrist injury requiring surgery, though he’s since returned with two wins in 2022 including a one-sided stoppage of an out-of-shape Javier Fortuna on July 16 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

Diaz outpointed Fortuna last July 9, a fight that was supposed to go to Garcia who withdrew to address his mental health.

Garcia has since spent his time insisting that he next desires a showdown with secondary WBA lightweight titlist and former two-time junior lightweight title claimant Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (27-0 25KOs).

There remains work ahead to piece together such a superfight, whereas Diaz and Garcia are both under Golden Boy Promotions and both based in California where their promoter does the bulk of its business. Also of note is the fact that the fight was already on the table and—absent securing a fight with Davis—Garcia will be in need of a high-profile opponent for his next outing.

Diaz and his team don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t mark the perfect time to bring closure to their long-running rivalry.

“Jojo wants Ryan next, period” Rick Mirigian, Diaz’s manager told BoxingScene.com, “If not, he will fight a highly ranked guy in November.”

The hope is that it doesn’t come to that. In addition to pursuing a Davis fight, Garcia also hinted that he may campaign at 140 pounds moving forward, though he immediately clarified that he’d fight at any weight that was good with Davis. Garcia weighed just under that mark for his win over Fortuna, who requested their fight take place at the junior welterweight limit. Garcia’s fight with Ghana’s Emmanuel Tagoe this past April—his first in 15 months—was at a 139-pound contracted limit.

Diaz is more concerned about whether the 23-year-old Garcia will once again look his way. If so, the question is if he will go through with the fight this time around. Least of his concerns is the required weight limit for such a pairing.

“If he don’t want to fight at 135 anymore, I don’t mind fighting him at a catchweight at 138 just to make the fight happen,” admitted Diaz. “If it’s trouble for him, I don’t mind doing the higher weight for that fight.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox