By Ryan Burton
Former lightweight champion Juan "Baby Bull" Diaz returns to the ring for the third time this year against Juan Santiago in the chief support bout underneath the HBO televised main event that pits Mike Alvarado against Ruslan Provodnikov. The fight takes place in Broomfield, Colo. near Alvarado's hometown.
The 30-year-old Diaz is happy to have an opportunity to fight in front of a sold out crowd and to be part of the Alvarado-Provodnikov fight which many feel will be a Fight of the Year candidate.
"I am very excited. This is a great card to be on. I just signed with Top Rank and I am excited that the crowd gets to see me. Its a great fight and I'm happy to be part of it," Diaz explained.
Diaz has been promoted by Main Events, Don King, Golden Boy Promotions and now Top Rank in his career. He said he signed with Bob Arum's company because they want to build him back up to being a world-champion fighter and aren't looking to use his name to showcase other fighters.
"Top Rank showed the most interest in me becoming champion again. They are the ones that really want to work with me, move my career slowly, and get me back to being a world champion again.
"Other promotional companies want to use me as a stepping stone where Top Rank wants to work with me. We are going to sit down and talk with Carl Moretti and Brad Goodman after this fight and see who will be my next opponent. We will make an assessment after the fight and after we see how I look but we are definitely going to challenge for a world title in 2014 ," Diaz told BoxingScene.com.
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