By Mark Vester
The Houston Chronicle reports that WBA lightweight champion Juan Diaz (31-0, 15KOs) is hoping to fully sign with promoter Don King and get his career moving towards much bigger fights.
This past weekend Diaz defeated Fernando Angulo in the chief support bout to Sergei Liakhovich vs. Shannon Briggs at Chase Field in Arizona. Diaz fought the bout under a one-fight temporary deal with Don King, and is currently in talks to sign a multi-fight deal with the promoter.
"I hope we can work things out," said Diaz. He has great plans for me and my team. And if we can get the promotional contract done, you know, it's going to be a done deal, and we'll look forward to bigger and better things."
Don King appears to have very big plans for Diaz, so a deal with the undefeated fighter should be finalized soon. King hopes to match him against one of the other champions to unify the division. King is in talks with the NFL, hoping to put together a boxing card with Juan Diaz that would lead into the Super Bowl.
"The (person) who set the tone for is this young man, Diaz. He's already dropped the gauntlet. He wants to unify the lightweight division. That means (facing WBC champion Joel) Casamayor, that means the winner between Jesus Chavez (the IBF champion) and Julio Diaz, who will be on the same card that he will be fighting on, hopefully, on Super Bowl Saturday. We're working with the NFL and all of them down in Miami now. It would be the first time that they will put a boxing event before a Super Bowl event. And hopefully, both of the Diazes will be fighting on the same card," said King.
