By Jason Kim: Former IBF/WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Diaz (35-3, 17 KO’s) hinted about retirement recently in an article at the Miamiherald.com. Diaz, only 26, has lost three out of his last five bouts and appears to be going downhill rather than still improving as a fighter. Diaz had this to say about his fight this Saturday night against Juan Manuel Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KO’s): “This fight here, a lot of people have been mentioning to me that it’s a do or die fight. Well, I don’t think it is a do or die fight. I think it’s a win-win situation because either I become a world champion once again and become a superstar or it opens up doors for me to do other things and focus on other aspects of my life.”

There it is. Diaz is hinting about doing other things instead of boxing. That’s too bad, because even if Diaz loses the fight, he still is young enough to take over the division once Marquez moves up in weight or retires. Marquez is 36, and won’t be fighting forever. He could be retiring in the next year or two. Diaz would only be 28 at that time, young enough to still make some noise in the lightweight division. Diaz should hang around just for that reason. Diaz wants to be a lawyer, but he needs to focus on his boxing career while he still has time.

He won’t make money like this as a lawyer for a long time, if ever. Diaz has flab on his midsection. If he were to trim off that baby fat, Diaz could easily make the super featherweight or ever featherweight divisions. In either of those weight classes, Diaz would be hard to beat because of his power and work rate. He’d have to learn how to deal with an uppercut, though, because he’d be having a lot of fighters throwing those kinds of shots at him if they think he can’t defend them.