If nothing else, Joseph Diaz Jr. didn’t suffer another loss Saturday night.

A day after surrendering his title at their weigh-in, Diaz battled Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov to a 12-round majority draw in the main event of DAZN’s five-fight stream from Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California. The former IBF junior lightweight champion beat Rakhimov on the scorecard of judge Robert Hoyle (115-113), but Hoyle was overruled by judges Fernando Villarreal (114-114) and Zachary Young (114-114) because they scored their 130-pound title fight even.

Though he didn’t win the IBF junior lightweight title, the 26-year-old Rakhimov proved himself against the most accomplished opponent he has faced since making his pro debut in December 2015. The Tajikistan native was the IBF’s mandatory challenger for Diaz’s title, but he was mostly unknown among American boxing fans before facing Diaz (31-1-1, 15 KOs), a southpaw from Downey, California.

“I’m a little upset,” Diaz told DAZN’s Beto Duran in his post-fight interview. “I thought I did enough to win the fight. It was a close fight. It wasn’t my best performance. Obviously, I didn’t make weight and, you know, I vacated my title. But it was a long layoff, man, and I wanna apologize to DAZN, I wanna apologize to all of my fans that have been rooting for me since day one, and that have been, you know, rocking with me, and that they wanted to watch this fight. It was a mistake on my [behalf]. It was a year layoff. man. No excuses, but I’ll get back into it.

“This fight, it was a close fight. The guy was, you know, throwing a lot of combinations and throwing a lot of shots, but it was just all gloves. And I thought I was, you know, dictating the pace, landing the good body shots, hurting him, and walking him down and breaking him down. … I thought I shoulda won the fight, but it is what it is, man. I just gotta, you know, learn from this and take some time off and get right back to it.”

CompuBox credited Diaz for landing 20 more punches overall than Rakhimov (233-of-740 to 213-of-951). Diaz landed more power punches (193-of-468 to 169-of-536), but CompuBox counted a few more jabs for Rakhimov (44-of-415 to 40-of-272).

Diaz lost the IBF 130-pound championship at the scale Friday afternoon because he weighed 133.6 pounds, 3½ over the limit. Rakhimov (15-0-1, 12 KOs) weighed in at 129.8, thus he was at least eligible to win that title Saturday night.

Coming in way overweight didn’t just cost Diaz his world title and his negotiating leverage. He had to pay a $100,000 fine from his $500,000 purse, half to Rakhimov and half to the California State Athletic Commission.

Diaz had hoped to defeat Rakhimov and move toward title unification fights in the 130-pound division. He won the IBF junior lightweight title by defeating Philadelphia’s Tevin Farmer by unanimous decision in their 12-rounder last January 30 in Miami.

Farmer had an immediate rematch clause in his contract. The time frame for scheduling it expired, however, and Diaz moved forward with this mandated match with Rakhimov.

Their fight appeared to be as close as the judges had it entering the 12th round.

A right-left combination by Diaz landed 25 seconds into the 12th round. Diaz also caught Rakhimov with a right hook with about 1:40 remaining in their fight.

Diaz rocked Rakhimov with a right hand later in the final round.

Rakhimov connected with three left hands in the middle minute of the 11th round, but Diaz again was the aggressor in that round. Diaz nailed Rakhimov with a left hand late in the 11th round.

An assertive Diaz landed the harder punches in the 10th round, when Rakhimov threw fewer punches than in previous rounds.

Diaz landed to Rakhimov’s body in the ninth round. He also landed two left hands to Rakhimov’s head in the final 25 seconds of the ninth.

An aggressive Diaz was effective in the eighth round. They traded hard left hands that seemed to get one another’s attention with just over 30 seconds remaining in that eighth round.

Diaz threw more punches in the seventh round than in each of the previous two rounds. Rakhimov mostly tried to box Diaz from a distance in that round, but he blasted Diaz with a counter right hook with just under 55 seconds left in that seventh round.

A right-left combination by Rakhimov moved Diaz backward 1:15 into the sixth round. Rakhimov again was busier and more accurate in that sixth round, when he avoided many of Diaz’s punches.

An overhand left by Diaz landed just before the halfway point of the fifth round. Rakhimov’s jab backed up Diaz with about 40 seconds to go in the fifth.

Diaz landed a left to the side of Rakhimov’s head 30 seconds into the fourth round. An accurate, busier Rakhimov fought well from a distance for much of that fourth round, though,

Diaz drilled Rakhimov with a straight left hand about 40 seconds into the third round. Diaz began bleeding from his nose in the third round, but he caught Rakhimov with another left that backed him up with just over a minute remaining in it.

A right hook by Diaz knocked Rakhimov off balance about 25 seconds into the second round. A left hand by Diaz turned around Rakhimov’s head and knocked him off balance again later in the second round.

Rakhimov landed hard left hands to Diaz’s body just after the midway mark of the first round. Diaz blasted Rakhimov with a straight left hand to his head with just under 30 seconds to go in the opening round, but Rakhimov took that clean punch well.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.