For up-and-coming featherweight Jo-Jo Diaz, patience is key on road to world championship

"Patience is passion tamed." - 19th century author Lyman Abbott

For up-and-coming featherweight boxer Joseph Diaz Jr., better known as Jo-Jo, passion and patience go hand in hand.

Diaz, 23, is highly passionate about the sport that has taken him to the 2012 Olympics and currently has him on a path to a world championship.

But right now, he says, patience is his friend.

"I know that eventually I want to get a world title shot and I want to have world title belts around my waist, but I know patience is the key, so getting all the experience is the best thing," Diaz told Paste BN Sports. "I want to be a world champion that, when I do win a title and I have that belt around my waist, I want to be able to defend it and be No. 1 for quite a while."

Diaz (20-0, 11 KOs) resumes his quest for greatness on Saturday night when he takes on a tough, experienced fighter in Victor Proa (28-1-2, 21 KOs), a 31-year-old Mexican who has knocked out most of his opponents. The fight is the co-feature of the HBO Latino card (11:15 p.m. ET) from the Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, Calif. The main event pits Antonio Orozco vs. Abner Lopez in a welterweight 10-rounder.

For Diaz, from South El Monte, Calif., it's another big step toward headlining his own card.

"It's a very tough fight. (Proa) is very heavy-handed, has a good record and it's on HBO Latino, so I need to make a statement," Diaz said.

An impressive showing could lead to boxing's biggest stage for Diaz - a spot on the Canelo Alvarez-Liam Smith HBO pay-per-view card at AT&T Stadium in Dallas on Sept. 17.

"Jo Jo has been one of our top prospects since he made the 2012 Olympic team," said Oscar De La Hoya, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, which signed Diaz right out of the London Games. "If HBO falls in love with him Saturday, it's a no brainer that he'll be on our big HBO show September 17."

By then, the Rio Olympics will be history and a new batch of Olympians will be ready to be signed. Diaz was part of the first American men's team to be shut out of the medal count in London. He says if that team, which currently has only two losses combined as professionals, were fighting this year when professionals are allowed to box and the rules have changed to the 10-9 system, things would be different.

"I think on the 2012 Olympic team we had tremendous talent and the ability to go out and get the gold medals, but I think politics had a lot to do with it," said Diaz who won his first bout but lost the second in 2012. "Our styles were meant for professional fighting, so all of us have been really good as professionals. . . . We would probably win two or three (gold) medals without a doubt if we had that type of scoring system."

Diaz is also okay with the patience that Golden Boy is showing him. It paid off in his last fight, on the undercard of the Andre Ward-Sullivan Barrera fight on HBO in Oakland. In his biggest win yet, Diaz easily defeated onetime title challenger Jayson Velez by decision.

"I feel like they're bringing me along very well," the southpaw said of GBP. "They're getting me all the fights I need to gain that experience, they're putting me in there with veterans that I can gain the experience with. I went the distance, 10 rounds, in four or five fights already, so I'm getting all those rounds in and I'm able to adapt to different styles. Golden Boy is keeping me very active. I'm in my fourth year already and I have 20 fights. They're signing me on great networks to get me that exposure, too."

Family is very important to Diaz, who is trained by his father, Joseph Sr.

"We have a great chemistry with each other," the son said. "He's my father, my best friend and my trainer and coach. Sometimes we clash and argue about what he thinks is right and what I think is right inside the boxing ring, but the thing about us is we let the boxing stuff stay inside the ring and the gym.

"Once the training is over, we don't even talk about boxing. We just (revert) to the father-son relationship that we have. What benefits us is we don't get angry outside of the gym about the situations we talk about inside the gym."

Golden Boy matchmaker Robert Diaz (no relation) has said that Diaz should be able to fight for a title by the end of this year. Diaz agrees.

"I feel like I'm coming along as a professional very well," he said. "My technique is improving and my professional style and combinations are improving and the way I'm setting my shots up I feel like by the end of the year I should get a world title shot without a doubt."

One fighter Diaz is eyeing is new WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez, who knocked out Argentina's undefeated Matias Rueda in the second round last weekend in Las Vegas to take the vacant title.

"Me and Oscar fought in the amateurs (Diaz won a narrow decision in 2009) and he's a great guy," Diaz said. "I would love to fight him. I know down the line we're going to fight each other, but we just have to focus on our opponents for now and we will be fighting if he still has that title belt around his waist."

(Photo of Diaz, right, against Jayson Velez, by Ezra Shaw, Getty images)