By Eric Thomas: We very likely could be seeing a rematch between Juan Diaz and Paulie Malignaggi on December 12th, according to the latest boxing news. Contracts have reportedly been sent out for the fight. The bout will either take place in Las Vegas or Chicago, not in Diaz’s home town of Houston, Texas, where their previous controversial fight took place.

In that fight, Diaz won it by a 12 round unanimous decision with two judges scoring it closely and the third giving it to Diaz by a lopsided margin. Malignaggi, who appeared to win the fight by at least two rounds, was infuriated after the bout, complaining that he had been robbed by a bad decision. Diaz, however, felt that he had done more than enough to win the fight and naturally felt quite good about the decision that was handed down by the judges.

Malignaggi’s promoter has been trying to put together a rematch since then, but it’s been slow going because Diaz was looking to go in another direction, wanting to fight Ricky Hatton and Juan Manuel Marquez. Diaz wants to fight Hatton, but the chances of Ricky deciding to fight Diaz of all opponents would seem very remote at best. Hatton obviously had better options available to him and doesn’t need to fight Diaz, a fighter who stopped by Marquez earlier this year in the 9th round and was also defeated by Nate Campbell last year.

It seems pretty clear that Malignaggi is Diaz’s best option, mainly because HBO is interested in showing the fight and boxing fans are somewhat interested in watching the bout. I say somewhat because this isn’t a championship bout, lets be clear on that. Malignaggi is a good light welterweight, but he’s far from being the best in the division.

That title probably would go to Timothy Bradley. And there are a number of other light welterweights besides Bradley that are better fighters than Malignaggi. Diaz really doesn’t have a place in the light welterweight division because he appears to be too small and not powerful enough to beat the better fighters like Marcos Maidana, Kendall Holt, Ricardo Torres and Victor Ortiz. Even at lightweight, Diaz might not be a championship caliber fighter anymore.

The top guys at that weight class are Marquez, Ali Funeka and Edwin Valero, all of whom would likely beat Diaz if they were to fight. So a fight between Diaz and Malignaggi is more of a kind of a spectacle rather than a fight between future champions.

Diaz might be able to be a champion again if he moves back down and fights strictly lightweights. But if he stays at light welterweight, he’s going to get beaten up again and again by the bigger, stronger fighters in the division. Diaz is a good fighter, talented enough to beat fighters like Michael Katsidis, but not good enough obviously to beat Marquez and Campbell. Diaz would probably have big problems with Valero as well due to his power.