By William Mackay: It’s good that HBO executives really want to see a rematch between WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (50-5-1, 37 KO’s) and Juan Diaz (35-3, 17 KO’s) for a bout that will take place on July 31st, at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

But the fight has lost much of the suspense already before the first blow has been thrown because both Diaz and Marquez have been recently schooled by other opponents.

In Diaz’s case, he split a pair of fights with Paulie Malignaggi and looked horrible in both of them. With Marquez, he got dominated in a 12 round decision loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last September and looked all of his 36-years.

Next month, Marquez turns 37, and that’s not a good age for a fighter in the lower weight class like him. He could age overnight and be more susceptible to being beaten by Diaz this time. However, if Marquez is anywhere close to what he was in his 9th round stoppage win over the 26-year-old Diaz last year in February, then he should be plenty good enough to beat him to a pulp like last time.

Diaz gave Marquez hell in that fight for about six rounds before Marquez figured him out and began to punish Diaz increasing more and more with big shots in rounds six through eight. In the 9th, Marquez ended matters by putting the battered Diaz on the canvas with a solid right uppercut to the head.

Diaz, his face looking beet red, laid on his back on the canvas for a long time afterwards. It was a bad knockout loss for Diaz. He didn’t look at all good in his next two fights against the light-hitting Paulie Malignaggi.

Although Diaz one of the two fights he had with Malignaggi, he didn’t look good in either of those fights, in part because he was moving up in weight and also due to Malignaggi’s crafty style of fighting.

It was a good thing that Diaz got a break from the heavy pounding he had taken in the Marquez and Nate Campbell losses, but didn’t look good when taking shots from Malignaggi in their two fights. Can Diaz do anything different to beat Marquez this time around?

I don’t know. Diaz’s whole game is based on him putting heavy pressure on his opponents and out-working them with combinations. He doesn’t do well when he tries to box his opponents.

This means that if he wants to beat Marquez, he will have to come after him and try to punch with him. That will probably be Diaz’s undoing, as Marquez has fought many Mexican fighters over his long career and knows how to beat sluggers.

He does less well against pure boxers, but Diaz doesn’t have the hand speed or reach to box Marquez from the outside, and will have to get near to Marquez if he hopes to beat him.