Juan Manuel Marquez plans on defending lightweight title, possibly against Juan Diaz – News

By Jim Dower: World Boxing Organization lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KO’s) is planning on staying at lightweight and defending his WBO title for one more fight before moving up to the light welterweight division for a possible fight against Ricky Hatton later on in 2010, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Marquez, 36, could be fighting next in June, says Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer. The opponent for that fight could be none other than former IBF/WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Diaz (35-3, 17 KO’s), who Marquez defeated last year in a 9th round stoppage in February.

It was an exciting fight that saw both fighters take turns hurting each other with big shots. Marquez pulled away from Diaz in the 8th, and then finished him off with uppercuts in the 9th that left Diaz flat on his back, badly hurt. Diaz has lost three out of his last five fights, and it’s hard to see what Marquez sees in fighting him at this point.

However, Marquez is coming off a loss of his own, a 12 round one-sided defeat at the hands of Floyd Mayweather Jr. last September. Marquez needs a solid win right now against anyone, but not someone who could possibly beat him and ruin his chances for a big money fight against Hatton. There’s no telling whether Hatton, 31, will decide to fight Marquez, even if Juan does beat whoever he fights in his next bout.

But it’s obviously better for Marquez to fight someone safe so that he doesn’t mess up a potential fight against Hatton. HBO is apparently interested in showing Marquez’s next fight. That makes sense, because Marquez is an entertaining fighter and has a bigger name than a lot of the fighters that I’ve seen on HBO in the past year.

If Marquez does fight Hatton, he’ll have to travel to Manchester, England to make it happen. However, that matters little, because Hatton doesn’t look like the same fighter he was five years ago when he was beating the likes of Kostya Tszyu in Manchester. If Hatton attempts to grapple with Marquez on the inside, he could end up getting stopped because Marquez is an excellent inside fighter and is well versed at the inside game. There’s little point in Marquez staying at lightweight. There’s only one big name in the division, Edwin Valero, who is looking to move up to the light welterweight division.

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