Diaz, Malignaggi quibbling over one pound

UPDATE: DiBella Entertainment sent out a press release stating that the fight is a done deal for August 22 in Houston, with an agreed-upon weight of 138.5. While ridiculous, I'm happy it's done.

BoxingScene.com's Rick Reeno reports that the ongoing negotiations between 135-pound contender Juan Diaz and 140-pound contender Paulie Malignaggi are down to a one-pound difference. Diaz had insisted that it not go over 137 pounds, but now has said he's willing to go to 138. Malignaggi refuses to drop below 139, though.

Reeno says the same thing, and I'm going to echo it: What the hell is Juan Diaz doing here? Either take this fight, even at the full 140 pounds, or don't. Malignaggi hasn't really looked good since the first fight with Lovemore N'dou and he has zero power. This is a fight I'd pick Diaz to win every single day of the week. Malignaggi won't be able to deter Diaz, who has good enough speed to keep up with even an on-point Paulie. Diaz projects, in my view, to simply pressure and batter Paulie to death.

With his style and his own lack of power, I wouldn't really want to see Diaz go up to 140 against some guys, but Paulie isn't one of them. This is likely a bigger money fight than a bout with Rolando Reyes, who I'd even say is a much bigger threat to Diaz than Malignaggi is. I think we've seen Paulie's peak. He's a one-dimensional fighter with heart for days but such an insane lack of punching power that he just isn't going to be able to beat top guys, who now know that the way to beat him is to walk through him and find him. If Ricky Hatton could so easily manhandle Malignaggi last November, Diaz should have no problem. Hatton and Diaz are fairly comparable fighters in many ways, though Ricky is stronger than Juan.

Really, either make the fight or stop haggling about it. We're talking about -- at best -- a Boxing After Dark main event or a decent PPV undercard fight, and if it doesn't happen everyone goes back to Diaz-Reyes and that probably gets made, and Paulie tries to find another fight for himself. 140 is little risk for Diaz against Paulie; 139 is the same.