By Peter Wells: With Paulie Malignaggi taking on Juan Diaz tonight in a much anticipated rematch, both fighters came in under the 140lb weight limit, Paulie being 2 ounces heavier. Malignaggi is 26-3 while Diaz is much better at 35-2. It has been very heated and both fighters are raring to go, and so are we. Malignaggi is running on emotion, Diaz to prove it wasn’t a fluke or a cheat that he won the first encounter. Diaz is 3 years Malignaggi’s junior at 26 and has fought most of his career at Lightweight while Malignaggi has always been a Light Welterweight.

This is what Diaz had to say at the final press conference, “I’m excited, I’m happy and I’m ready. I feel like Santa Claus came early this year because come Saturday night, it’s going to be easy money. Not just Houston and Chicago, but this time the whole world is going to feel my anger. They are going to see a Baby Bull they have never seen before. Saturday night I’m going to claim what’s mine. I did it once and I’m going to do it again.”

Paulie also sounded extremely confident saying “I’m excited about Saturday. We have worked really hard for this fight. I’m ready and Juan says he is ready. It’s going to be a great fight. I’m sharper and feel better than ever going into this fight. They can tell me anything they want about Juan Diaz. They can tell me he moved mountains or that he jumped from Houston to Chicago in a single bound. I don’t care. When the bell rings I know one thing, I’m ready.”

Diaz’s promoter Lou DiBella stuck up for his fighter saying “I want to thank Juan Diaz for taking this rematch. He didn’t have to; he could have been a punk like a lot of people are in this sport, but he took the fight and has shown once again that he is a bright spot in the world of boxing.”

Bernard Hopkins of Golden Boy Promotions kept a neutral frame of mind saying “The first fight between Diaz and Malignaggi was a very close fight; it really could have gone either way. Some people say Malignaggi won, others think Diaz won, and that is what is great about the sport of boxing, it brings controversy which leads to great fights.”

So both fighters are confident of victory and I am going for Diaz to do much more this time and take a clear decision, so there will be no controversy.