By Chris Williams: WBA/WBO lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez (52-5-1, 38 KO’s) has reportedly reached a verbal agreement to fight 34-year-old Erik Morales (51-6, 35 KO’s) in a pay-per-view bout on April 9th at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The fight will enable the 37-year-old Marquez to go for his 4th world title, as the WBC Diamond belt will be up for grabs for this light welterweight clash. It’s not exactly one of the more traditional belts, as the WBC created the thing not long ago before the Manny Pacquiao vs. Miguel Cotto bout in 2009.

The strap is meant for elite champions, although it’s hard to see Morales fitting in that category now that he’s pretty much completely shot. This is more of an old timers fight on one side with Morales against a still very good fighter in Marquez. The Diamond belt merely is a token strap that will impress some of the less knowledgeable boxing fans. But I don’t see why it shouldn’t count for Marquez being able to win his 4th world title, when Manny Pacquiao has The Ring Magazine title as one of his belts, and that isn’t one of the sanctioning bodies.

As far as the fight goes, it’s going to be almost guaranteed mismatch. Morales has nothing left and has looked dreadful since making his comeback in 2010, winning three fights and appearing to lose two of three. I had Morales losing to both Jose Alfaro and Francisco Lorenzo. The only real win for Morales was against 2nd tier fighter Willie Limond, and even in that fight, Morales was getting clobbered for the better part of the fight until stopping Limond in the 6th.

Marquez is wasting his time with this fight. If he’s serious about wanting to fight the best fighters in the light welterweight division, beating up on a shot Morales isn’t the answer.