By Chris Williams: According to Dan Rafael of ESPN, Golden Boy Promotions is in the process of putting together a rematch between former lightweight champion Juan Diaz (35-3, 17 KO’s) and World Boxing Organization lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KO’s) in a Pay-Per-View card on July 10th, possibly to take place at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Schaefer says “We are very close” to having the fight made. Diaz, 26, and Marquez fought previously last year in February, a fight which ended with Marquez stopping Diaz in the 9th round.

The fight was exciting one with both fighters getting hurt in toe-to-toe exchanges. It’s unfortunate, however, that the two didn’t opt to fight an immediate rematch instead of waiting for over a year to decide upon fighting again. Since this fight, Diaz has looked poor in two ill-advised fights with light welterweight Paulie Malignaggi, winning one of the fights by a controversial 12 round decision and losing the most recent fight by a 12 round decision.

Marquez, 36, was easily beaten last September in a one-sided 12 round decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Las Vegas. Based on the problems that the two fighters have had in their recent bouts, it would seem like a much better idea to not have this fight be a PPV bout. It seems kind of silly to make boxing fans pay to see two fighters that were recently beaten. And in the case of Diaz, he’s not only coming off a loss to Malignaggi, but he’s also been beaten in three out of his last five fights.

I think it’s ridiculous to put this fight on PPV. I don’t care who they package this fight with in terms of the undercard, I still don’t see it as a PPV fight. If Marquez and Diaz were actually looking good and had won their last fights, I could see this being on PPV, but not for two struggling fighters. Marquez doesn’t look good fighting at lightweight, and had major problems with beating Joel Casamayor shortly before the Diaz fight.

Rafael says that the winner of the Diaz-Marquez rematch could then be looking to move up to the light welterweight division and fight one of the champions Devon Alexander, Timothy Bradley or Amir Khan. I think that’s a pretty lousy idea if you ask me. Diaz already pretty much proved that he doesn’t have the size to compete against light welterweights when he was handled by the taller, light-hitting Malignaggi last December.

And Marquez looked fat and slow when he bulked up to 143 for his welterweight bout against Mayweather last September. Even if Marquez trims down a little to fight at light welterweight, he still would likely be very slow at that weight. Marquez’s best weight is super featherweight or featherweight.

I don’t think Marquez belongs at lightweight or especially light welterweight. I see him losing to whoever he gets put in with. His best chance, if he wants to fight at light welterweight for a good payday, would be to fight Khan, because he would have a good chance of taking Khan out if he can catch up to him.

However, Marquez already had a chance at fighting Khan and opted not to take it. Marquez would be better off moving back down in weight to super featherweight but if he insists on fighting at lightweight, he should focus on defending the title against the likes of Michael Katsidis or Kevin Mitchell. At least Marquez would have a good chance of beating those guys.

The undercard of the Diaz-Marquez II fight could have Sergio Mora fighting 38-year-old Winky Wright. That fight doesn’t interest me at all. Wright is getting up there in age, and if I want to see him fight, I don’t want to see him against Mora, who will probably be running all around the ring all night long. I don’t think this is enough for me to want to purchase this card on PPV. I think it would make for a good ESPN 2 fight, though.