Juan Diaz Focused on The Law, and Juan Manuel Marquez

Published Mon May 24, 2010, 4:00 AM

As tough as Juan Diaz is in the ring, you can bet that the former, two-time lightweight titlist would be equally as dogged in a courtroom.

An aspiring attorney who will rematch WBO and WBA champion, Juan Manuel Marquez, on July 31, Diaz will take the LSAT on June 7 as a means of gaining entrance into law school.

The 26-year-old Diaz (35-3, 17 knockouts) already has a college degree in political science, having earned that distinction in May of 2009 from the University of Houston.

"I love the sport of boxing, and there is a need there as well. I see how much fighters go through in dealing with contracts and dealing with managers," said Diaz, referring to an area in which his lawyering skills might be of future assistance.

"Those types of situations are those that have become really dear to my heart," said Diaz. "I would want to help out as far as trying to assist the future, upcoming boxers. So those are situations that I would like to address."

There is also at least one area outside of boxing that Diaz would likely address as well, and that's immigration.

"All of my immediate family are U.S. citizens now," said Diaz. "But I come from an immigrant family which has had immigration problems throughout my years as a young boy. I believe that I could be useful in immigration law."

And Diaz is non too happy with what's going on in Arizona.

"As far as my feelings [about the laws], I don't like them because I think that...it's violating a lot of the rights. You stereotype people, and it gives a lot of opportunity for the law enforcement to be abusive of those rights," said Diaz.

"I say this even though I believe in supporting our law enforcement officers and even though I think that our laws here in this country are the most outstanding. They're certainly better than any other country," said Diaz. "But I still don't think that the state should have taken it upon themselves to inact those types of laws."

While Diaz said that he understands the reason the laws were inacted had to do with the rampant drug-trafficking along the Arizona borders and Mexico, the way it was done has caused widespread problems.

"I believe that a few rotten apples can damage the whole pile. So from a few indicidents that have happened in Arizona, they're labeling the whole Hispanic population as going in there and causing trouble, and killing other people," said Diaz.

"It's affecting their collective perception of things," said Diaz. "I believe that the law that was inacted there is affecting the whole country in itself."

Of particular concern was a recent report on CNN during which an innocent college student was arrested because she wasn't carrying proper identification.

"I saw on CNN this morning a young lady who was a senior at the University of Denver was stopped and asked for identification, and now, she's in jail. She's in jail because she didn't have any identification," said Diaz.

"They took her to jail just to question her about her legal status, even though she was a senior in college," said Diaz. "I think the state of Arizona is going a little too far when it comes to the 10th ammendment powers that the state has the right to inact."

That college student could easily have been Diaz.