Jesus Manuel Rojas Diaz (born December 26, 1986, in Caguas, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican boxer who is the former WBA (Regular) featherweight champion.
Professional career
After turning professional in 2006 Rojas amassed a record of 25–1–2–1 in 11 years before challenging and beating Dominican Claudio Marrero for the interim WBA featherweight title.
In July 2018 the World Boxing Association announced that Rojas was upgraded to 'Regular champion' and that he will be making his first defense against Mexican American boxer Joseph Diaz. Diaz however, came into the fight overweight, missing the required weight limit by 0.6 pounds. According to WBA rules, this meant that Rojas got to keep his title regardless of the outcome of the fight. Diaz thus suffered his first defeat in 10 years, by a 12-round unanimous decision.
In a fight deemed an early "fight of the year" candidate, Rojas defended his WBA title against Chinese star and WBA #2 at featherweight Can Xu. Xu edged out Rojas in a highly controversial unanimous decision. The official scorecards, 118–110, 117–111, and 116–112 were in wide favor of Xu, even though the punch output from Rojas suggested that the fight was much closer than that.
Professional boxing record
ResultRecordOpponentTypeRound, timeDateLocationNotes33Win Luis Castillo Leal 32Loss26–3–2 Xu Can 31Loss26–2–2 Joseph Diaz 30Win26–1–2 Claudio Marrero 29Win25–1–2 Abraham Lopez 28Win24–1–2 Jesus A Valdez 27Win23–1–2 Kiun Evans 26Draw22–1–2 Jorge Lara 25Win22–1–1 Braulio Santos 24Win21–1–1 Jose Angel Beranza 23Win20–1–1 Juan Carlos Pena 22Win19–1–1 Juan Jose Beltran 2118–1–1 Jorge Arce 20Draw18–1–1 Jose Luis Araiza 19Win18–1 Miguelo Tavarez 18Win17–1 Isaac Hidalgo 17Win16–1 Reynaldo Lopez 16Win15–1 Luis Angel Paneto 15Win14–1 Richard Pitt 14Loss13–1 Jose Angel Beranza 13Win13–0 Anyetei Laryea 12Win12–0 Alex Baba 11Win11–0 Andres Ledesma 10Win10–0 Carlos Diaz 9Win9–0 Baladan Trevizo 8Win8–0 Torrence Daniels 7Win7–0 Ricardo Blackman 6Win6–0 Enrique Quevedo 5Win5–0 Ubaldo Olivencia 4Win4–0 Arturo Colon 3Win3–0 Jose Gonzalez 2Win2–0 Jose Gonzalez 1Win1–0 Christopher Sanchez
See also List of world featherweight boxing champions List of Puerto Rican boxing world champions
References
External links
Jesus Rojas - Profile, News Archive & Current Rankings at Box.Live