After turning professional in Mexico as a 16-year-old, the Californian had his first five fights over the border in Tijuana.

Since then he has boxed right across the USA and, most recently, across the Atlantic in London.

Today, many of Sylve’s friends and family will get to see the junior welterweight fight in the flesh for the first time since 2022 when he returns home to Long Beach, California.

Sylve (13-1, 10 KOs) will box former IBF junior lightweight champion JoJo Diaz (34-9-1, 15 KOs) on a Misfits Pro card at the city’s Thunder Studios.

“It's always like that. I try to usually stay out of it for the most part and kind of get back to them later, but the phone kind of goes crazy,” Sylve told The Ring moments after weighing in for the fight Thursday.

“It definitely feels good. My family's been waiting. So have a lot of people that haven't seen me in so long — in four years — so it's great to be back [in Long Beach]. It’s something I've been wanting to do for about a couple of years now. Now we're here in Long Beach, it makes it even better.”

Sylve was just 18 years old but one of boxing’s most highly touted youngsters when he signed a deal with MVP in 2022.

Things went well until July 2024 when he was matched with unbeaten Canadian puncher Lucas Bahdi.

For the best part of six rounds, Sylve picked apart Bahdi, leading 50-45 on all three judges' scorecards, until a brutal and unexpected three-punch combination.

He was KO'd cold. It has since emerged that Sylve was involved in a serious jet ski accident weeks before the fight. After it, he spent months recovering from stem cell treatment on a shoulder injury.

Sylve’s misfortune didn’t end there. His car was written off after a major accident and he parted ways with MVP.

Sylve is still only 22 but he's been through far too many ups and downs for a promising fighter of his age.

He has notched two confidence-boosting wins since signing with Misfits and beating the experienced Diaz will provide him with a solid platform to start building again.

“That's exactly why we chose to fight JoJo Diaz,” he said. “Just to get on that path again, just to keep climbing up the rankings, just keep on progressing in my career, my journey. Once I beat JoJo, I think there's a lot of opportunities to open up after that.”

Diaz will be the first former world champion who Sylve has boxed, but he has been mixing with top-level operators for years.

As a teenager, he sparred with former welterweight champion Shawn Porter and multi-weight titleholder Leo Santa Cruz.

Sylve also shared the ring with Diaz during those formative years and knows that even though the 33-year-old is on a poor run of form — he's lost eight of his last 10 fights since 2021 — he can’t afford to overlook him.

“He's the first guy I actually sparred and now I'm fighting,” he said. “I saw it happening but, at the same time, I thought he was going to probably retire because he's coming off some of the losses. He's still the same guy, he's determined and wants to keep at it. I'm just going to adapt to that.

“That's always been my focus, to make sure I'm good. If I’m on my A-game, I just know when I'm in my flow that no one can stop me.’

The Gerbasi Corner honors longtime Ring Magazine and boxing contributor Tom Gerbasi, who passed away suddenly on Sept. 15, 2025. A 2024 Nat Fleischer Award winner for excellence in boxing journalism, Gerbasi took particular joy in telling the stories of up-and-coming and unheralded prospects in the sport.