Juan Diaz Talks About Comeback Fight, Casamayor Opponent Named

This is about the slowest news day in recent memory, which isn't unexpected given that it's a holiday weekend in the States, but jeez Louise, I've been used to having more than this to talk about during the day.

Anyway, Juan Diaz was interviewed at ESPN.com and gave his thoughts on his return to the ring, which is slated for the July 29 edition of Friday Night Fights. Diaz will face David Torres in the main event at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, which is quickly becoming a go-to location for the program.

Mostly, I found his motivation for returning interesting. When he posted the news of his comeback on the site, some wondered why he'd even bother, given that he's not your run-of-the-mill "fighter with nothing else he can do." Diaz is 27 and has been accepted to law school. He's made his money in boxing. He's clearly past his best days. But this is what he said:

"I have the acceptance letter from law school and I look at it every day and question myself every day if I am making the right decision," Diaz said. "I put it to the side and say law school can wait. What I really want is to become champion again, so I've been emailing back and forth with the university to see if I can work something out where they will let me defer for a year, because I don't think I want to go yet.

"I want to put another year or so into boxing, become world champion again, retire as champion and then go to law school."

That's about what I expected his reasoning to be. It is, of course, not the best reason to fight, especially when he knows he's not all 100% committed to the idea, and wonders if he should. But he sounds like he's got his head on straight, too -- if things don't go well, we do have at least a slight reason to expect he'll be smart enough to stop. And I say "slight" because, well, he is still a boxer, and they rarely stop when it's smart.

Joel Casamayor, as we said before, is also on that card. He'll be facing Jorge Teron (25-2-1, 17 KO), who is no patsy. If Casamayor looks as shot as he has in recent fights, Teron should be good enough, or at least tall enough (he's 6' tall), to deal with the old man, who turns 40 on July 12.