By Manuel Perez: Previously unbeaten lightweights Juan Diaz (33-1, 17 KOs) and knockout artist Michael Katsidis (23-1, 20 KOs) meet up in a do or die bout this Saturday night at the Toyota Center, in Houston, Texas. The bout matches to vastly different fighters against one another, with Katsidis, 28, a slugger with tremendous power and a defense which is pretty much nonexistent, and Diaz, 24, a high volume puncher with average power that normally relies on his nonstop punching ability and superb stamina to win his fights.

Of the two, Katsidis is the less skilled fighter by far, and the most vulnerable, having been hurt badly in wars with Czar Amonsot and Graham Earl in 2007. In both fights, Katsidis was hurt and came close to losing both of them. His tremendous punching power, however, saved him on both occasions letting him stay in the fight against Amonsot despite receiving terrible cuts around both eyes and then bailing him out against Early by allowing him to stop him in the 5th round. Katsidis luck finally ran out in his last fight against Joel Casamayor, who stopped him in the 10th round in March.

Katsidis was knocked down twice in the 1st round, and then another time in the 10th round after getting hit with a big left hand. The fight appeared to be prematurely stopped after Katsidis got up and attempted to survive the round. At the time of the knockdown, Katsidis was in control of the fight, taking the fight to the older Casamayor and was well on his way to a victory when he Katsidis got sloppy with his defense in the 10th round.

It was perhaps too big of a leap up in competition for Katsidis, even though Casamayor, 37, was well past his prime. Other than fights against Graham and Amonsot, Katsidis has fought largely no one of substance, and had been matched very soft. After such a hard fight as his bout with Casamayor was, Katsidis’ management appears to be doing him no favors by matching him even tougher in a fight against Diaz. Ideally, it would have been better to give Katsidis a fight for two to recover from his hard fight, allowing him to recover and learn how to work on his many glaring weaknesses.

Instead, he’s going up against an offensive work horse, which makes Antonio Margarito’s nonstop punching style look pedestrian in comparison. Diaz is vulnerable, though, having lost his last fight to Nate Campbell by a tough 12-round split decision in March. However, Diaz can take a heck of a shot, and won’t likely be affected by Katsidis’ huge shots no matter how often he lands.

What does bother Diaz, though, is an equally high work rate, which is what he met up with in his last fight with Campbell. Diaz started off well, and won most of the rounds in the first half of the fight. But, he slowed down in the second half, in particular after Diaz was cut over his left eye by a left uppercut by Campbell in the 6th round.

This seemed to make Diaz worried, slowing his work rate down for the first time as he seemed to be trying to protect his eye from getting hit by the big hooks from Campbell. Eventually, Diaz slowed down enough for Campbell to win enough rounds to get the split decision. It’s hard to tell who would have won if not for the cut, as Diaz looked outstanding in the first half and if he could have sustained that rate, he would have easily beaten Campbell.

Katsidis has his work cut out for him on Saturday night. Diaz appears to be the much better fighter, able to box from the outside, outwork Katsidis on the inside and has the better boxing skills and movement. Katsidis, with his enormous power, he does have a chance. If he can either open up a cut on the left eye of Diaz, which probably has a lot of weak scar tissue, he might be able to slow him down in the same manner that Campbell did.

Additionally, Katsidis has the kind of power that can knockout anyone. Normally, his opponents choose not to stand directly in front of him because of his power. Diaz, though, seems to relish trading shots with his opponents and will likely be within easy punching distance for Katsidis for as long as it lasts.