By Francisco Salazar

It has been almost 10 months since lightweight contender Petr Petrov has fought. That will all change in less than two weeks’ time.

Petrov will fight Gamaliel Diaz in a 10 round bout on April 3, Banner Promotions’ Artie Pelullo told Boxingscene.com. 

The bout will take place at the Omega Products International in Corona (a suburb of Los Angeles) and will be televised live on ESPN2.

Petrov (35-4-2, 17 KOs) last fought on May 23, when he won the 2014 Boxcino Lightweight Tournament final by stopping Fernando Carcamo in the 8th round.

Originally from Russia, Petrov fought a number of years in Spain before arriving in the United States over a year ago to participate in the tournament. Petrov is ranked as high as number two by the IBF.

Diaz (38-11-3, 17 KOs) fought to a third round technical draw in his last fight on September 13 against Anthony Crolla. Diaz holds wins over Robert Guerrero in 2005 and Takahiro Ao in 2012. He has lost to Guerrero in 2006, Humberto Soto in 2008, and Takashi Miura in 2013.

Opening up the ‘Friday Night Fights’ telecast, unbeaten welterweight Taras Shelestyuk (11-0, 8 KOs) will fight Juan Rodriguez (12-1, 5 KOs) in an eight round bout. 

Banner Promotions and Thompson Boxing will co-promote the card.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for BoxingScene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Salazar also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, RingTV, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing