HBO has an entertaining slate of fights this weekend (which I hope will be televised here, but I'm not counting on it), headlined by Juan Diaz versus Paulie Malignaggi. I don't see Diaz carrying any kind of pop with him up to junior welterweight, and Malignaggi showed his whiskers against 140-pound monsters like Cotto and Hatton. Nonetheless, I don't think Malignaggi's movement is going to have Diaz swinging at air, and he can't crack enough to keep Diaz off of him, especially at the catchweight. Diaz will find Malignaggi often enough, and even if he can't hurt him, he'll rattle the New Yorker. Malignaggi's going to have to fire back to win, but I don't see him keeping up with Diaz's pace. In Diaz's Houston, this looks like a solid unanimous decision.
On the undercard, Robert Guerrero, at 130 pounds, shoots for a belt in his second division against Malcolm Klassen. Guerrero reminds me of one of those writers who put together perfect sentences and have entertaining characters and vivid sequences, but their novels always leave you flat. He does everything well, but there's something about him that feels somehow lacking. And this isn't about him bailing on the Yordan fight. Nevertheless, I think he'll find a way to a scrappy decision win here, making him a two-division champ without ever having beaten a significant foe, without ever having earned a signature win. Hopefully he'll step up the opposition should he win this one.
Lastly, I like Daniel Jacobs over Ishe Smith, but I'm not expecting a particularly interesting bout.
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