By Jason Kim: World Boxing Council lightweight champion Edwin Valero (27-0, 27 KO’s) is already looking ahead after taking apart WBC lightweight interim champion Antonio DeMarco in a stoppage after the 9th round on February 6th in Monterey, Mexico. Valero, 28, wants to fight former lightweight champion Juan Diaz, according to Fight News. Valero also is interested in fighting WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez. And, of course, Valero very much wants to fight Manny Pacquiao, even saying that he wouldn’t make Pacquiao have to take any blood tests like Floyd Mayweather Jr. is asking for.

However, before Valero gets a shot against Pacquiao, he’s going to need to knock off a big name like Marquez to make more of a name for himself. It appears that Valero really wants to fight Diaz, and has said that he feels this will prove that he can beat a light welterweight. Diaz isn’t much of a light welterweight, having only recently moved up in weight to fight Paulie Malignaggi in two fights.

Diaz looked pretty bad in both of the fights and just doesn’t seem to have the size to do well at that weight class. Valero won’t get true gauge of whether he has what it takes to compete against light welterweights if he fights Diaz.

Instead of fighting the 5’6” Diaz, Valero needs to be looking at fighting a light welterweight like Andriy Kotelnik, Randall Bailey, Ricardo Torres, Lamont Peterson or Nate Campbell if he wants to test whether he has what it takes to fight at light welterweight.

Those are all good fighters, and I think it would let Valero know if he can fight at light welterweight if he can beat them without going life and death with them. I think it’s a bad idea for Valero to try fighting at that weight, because he doesn’t have a big frame and might end up struggling and losing. However, Valero wants a big money fight against Pacquiao, and to get that big payday, he’s going to have to prove that he’s good enough to beat some top light welterweights.

Technically, Juan Diaz is a top light welterweight by virtue of his high rankings by the IBF, WBA and WBO, but I think is probably a bottom dweller in the light welterweight based on who he can actually beat at that weight class. Valero should focus on fighting Marquez if he can and forget about Diaz. Juan has lost three out of his last five fights and it won’t be saying much if Valero beats him other than he can do what three other fights have done in the past two years.

It’s hard to get excited about seeing Valero fight Diaz after watching Juan get easily handled by Malignaggi in December. I’m betting that Top Rank, the promoters for Valero, end up putting him in with Diaz in a fight that won’t say much about the capabilities of Valero. It would be a good fight, but Diaz seems to have been figured out by his opponents as of late and it’s not such a big deal anymore when Diaz loses.