By Eric Thomas: Former lightweight champion Juan Diaz (35-4, 17 KO’s) reportedly plans on giving it another shot at resurrecting his career and hopefully capturing another title before he hangs it up. Only 27, Diaz, has lost four out of his last six fights and looked pretty unremarkable in all of the fights. He wants to take on some of the top fighters in the division like Michael Katsidis, Roberto Guerrero, Humberto Soto or Urbano Antillon.

However, he would likely lose to all of them right now because he really seems to have lost a step or two in the last couple of years. Diaz has lost back to back fights to Juan Manuel Marquez and Paulie Malignaggi. Diaz appeared to have lost his first fight with Malignaggi in August 2009 but was given a controversial 12 round decision. Diaz can still fight. The guys that he lost to were quality fighters and bad style match-ups for him. Malignaggi was a bigger fighter from a division above Diaz, and Marquez was the best fighter in the lightweight division. There’s no shame in losing to either of those guys. The one loss that really was a bad one for Diaz was the defeat by Nate Campbell in 2008. That was a winnable fight for Diaz but after he sustained a bad cut early in the fight it made it difficult for him to see. If not for the cut, Diaz likely would have won the fight.

If Diaz is serious about this comeback, he needs to take on someone that he matches up well with. Guerrero would be a tough fight right now. Diaz needs someone a little softer like Antillon, and then to work from there at finding another beatable opponent.