By Scott Gilfoid: Former IBF/WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (27-3, 19 KO’s) will be continuing with his rebuilding of his once promising career when he faces 33-year-old Julio Diaz (40-7-1, 29 KO’s) on April 27th in the UK at a still to be determined venue.
Diaz said to thesun.co.uk “We are waiting for official confirmation from the Khan Camp but as of now they have my contract which I have signed. We have reached an agreement on a deal and everything is secure.”
Can Diaz pull off an upset of Khan? Probably not. Diaz isn’t a big puncher, and he needs to beat his opponents by out-working them over the long haul instead of blasting them out. Khan does well against weak punchers, so this should be a relatively safe fight for him.
Diaz is being brought to make sure that Khan gets a win because he’s lost two out of his last three fights, and at this point he can’t afford another one. Showtime is reportedly going to be televising the Khan-Diaz fight despite it being another mismatch like Khan’s last fight against lightweight Carlos Molina last December.
Khan has a three-fight contract with Showtime, and this fight, like the last one, will provide very little value for knowledgeable American boxing fans who realize this is a mismatch going in the door.
For casual fans who don’t have a clue, it probably won’t matter because they’ll just be happy to see a fight and won’t care that Khan is going to drill Diaz in three or four rounds. Diaz was a good fighter at lightweight 7 years ago, but that was a long time ago and at a lower weight. He’s not looked good recently and was taken out in the 3rd round by Kendall Holt in 2011.
The magical question is will Golden Boy Promotions let Khan fight a real challenge in his fight later on 2013? This will be Khan’s third and final fight in his three-fight contract with Showtime and you’ve got to figure that Showtime will at least push for one quality fight for their three-fight deal with Khan.
If not, then that’s on them but it’s kind of sad if they’re going to pay Khan to fight fluff opposition over and over again without speaking up and insisting they get value for their money.
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