By Rick Reeno

The retirement of former lightweight champion Antonio DeMarco (31-5-1, 23KOs) was one of the shortest in recent memory.

DeMarco has accepted  the opportunity to face fellow former lightweight champ Omar Figueroa (25-0-1, 18KOs) on September 26th as part of the Premier Boxing Champions on NBC card, which is going to feature WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder in the main event.

DeMarco and Figueroa are now competing at junior welterweight.

In his last outing on June 21, DeMarco was dropped and outboxed by unbeaten Cuban Rances Barthelemy. He announced his retirement following the fight.

Figueroa sort of made his junior welterweight debut in May. He failed to make weight for the contest, coming in at 141.5-pounds, and won a twelve round unanimous decision over former champion Ricky Burns.

The fighting styles of Figueroa and DeMarco are made for each other - which may spell bad news for DeMarco. At only 29-years-old, DeMarco has decided to give it a final go. Since May of 2006, he's lost to Edwin Valero, Adrien Broner, Jessie Vargas and Barthelemy. Only Valero and Broner were able to stop him.

As far as Wilder, the likely opponent for him is French contender Johann Duhaupas (32-2, 20KOs), who went the distance (and lost a decision) with Erkan Teper in March. He came back less than a month later to upset Manuel Charr in Russia. He is ranked at #12 by the WBC. Wilder retained his title for the first time in June, when he knocked out Eric Molina in the ninth round.

The event is being targeted for the Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Alabama (Wilder's backyard). The venue has a capacity of 19,000. Wilder's fight with Molina took place at Birmingham's Bartow Arena.