JUAN MANUEL MARQUEZ vs JUAN DIAZ

Time was when it didn’t matter too much if a fighter lost, as long as he pleased the boxing public. This old-school way of thinking resurfaces on Saturday when Juan Manuel Marquez and Juan Diaz meet in a lightweight championship rematch on HBO PPV from the Mandalay Bay casino resort, Las Vegas. Each man lost in his last fight, but this hardly seems to matter. The people at Golden Boy Promotions take the view that the first bout between Marquez and Diaz was so dramatic and thrilling that fans will surely want to see the sequel. I think they are right. Marquez-Diaz II simply looks like being a rousing fight, and that really is all that matters.
 
Diaz has lost his last two fights, to Marquez and Paulie Malignaggi in their rematch, but he is never in a bad fight. At 26, he is a decade younger than Marquez. Most will remember that the first fight, 17 months ago, was even on the scorecards after eight rounds, with a bloodied Diaz dropped twice and stopped in the ninth.
 
Marquez was under tremendous pressure in several rounds. He suffered a bloody nose and a cut over the eye. Diaz was fighting furiously and looking like a winner. Gradually, however, Marquez began to assert himself with combinations and uppercuts. Diaz was bleeding from a severe cut over the right eye in the eighth and it was now Marquez who was in command and doing damage.  
 
If Diaz hadn’t suffered the cut, perhaps he would have won. His boxing technique seemed to fall apart as blood flowed. Diaz was making a game charge in the ninth, though, and briefly looked like battling his way back until he was caught and hurt, and Marquez didn’t let him off the hook.
 
Each man boxed outside the lightweight division in his last fight, Marquez losing to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a welterweight bout while Malignaggi outscored Diaz at junior welter.
 
I believe that the 135-pound division is the right weight class for these fighters, and I’m expecting each to be at his best on Saturday.
 
Marquez turns 37 next month but seems well preserved and still has ambition. A champion in three weight classes — featherweight, junior lightweight and lightweight — he talks of winning a fourth world title, at 140 pounds, before retiring although he has emphasized in interviews that he is focused on Saturday’s rematch.
 
Diaz, a university graduate, has a career in the legal profession ahead of him but says that he is still in love with boxing and enjoying being in the big fights.
 
In the Diaz camp, they see him winning this time by jabbing more and boxing a smarter fight than he did in Houston last year. His trainer, Ronnie Shields, feels that Diaz got away from the fight plan last time and stayed right in front of Marquez too much, even leaning into the path of the veteran’s uppercuts.
 
It is certainly possible that Diaz can do well by boxing a little more and banging a little less but, for me, his greatest chance against Marquez was always going to be based on swarming aggression and punch-volume.
 
If Diaz boxes more of a technical fight this time he will in effect be trying to outbox a masterful ring mechanic, and all-out aggression didn’t get the job done in the first fight. So, I see Diaz as being in a difficult position.
 
Of course, Marquez is 17 months older now, and they say that ageing fighters can become old in one fight. Marquez was not excessively punished in the bout with Mayweather, though, and he still has a vibrant and enthusiastic look about him. Still, this is boxing and anything can happen.
 
My concern about Diaz is that he has lost twice in his last three bouts, and they were decisive defeats. He went down with all guns blazing against Marquez, but the brutal reality is that he was knocked out, while in the Malignaggi fight there seemed to be something missing, as if Diaz couldn’t get started, although it didn’t help that he suffered a cut over the left eye in the second round.
 
Diaz’s manager, Willie Savannah, told the final press conference this week that Diaz has had a tremendous training camp and is raring to go. The big odds on Marquez at the Las Vegas sportsbooks are puzzling to Savannah. “Bet the house on Diaz,” he advised.
 
When a fighter’s handlers exude confidence it makes you wonder: “What do they know that I don’t know?” However, I do feel that Marquez will confirm his previous victory over Diaz. I don’t think it will be easy by any means, but try as I might, I just don’t see what Diaz can do to turn the tables.
 
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