One really has to wonder what is going through the heads of Richard Schaefer and Oscar De La Hoya right now. Recently, it was announced that Juan Manuel Marquez will face Juan Diaz in a rematch this July as the main event of an HBO PPV card. While the first fight was epic and an immediate rematch may have validated a pay-per-view event, the situation for both fighters has changed greatly since they stepped into the ring to face each other last February.
Both fighters are coming off one-sided losses. Marquez was absolutlely destroyed by Floyd Mayweather Jr. last September, landing an embarrassing 69 out of 583 punches. Meanwhile, Juan Diaz was given not one, but two boxing lessons by Paulie Malignaggi. Although Diaz was controversially and incorrectly awarded the decision in their first bout, Malignaggi left no doubt in their rematch, thoroughly outboxing and even momentarily rocking the young opponent.
It's really a shame. that Golden Boy Promotions has decided to go down the path of putting together meaningless pay-per-view events. This will mark the second event this year that Golden Boy Promotions has decided to put together a meaningless pay-per-view, the first being this weekend's long overdue rematch between Bernard Hopkins and Roy Jones Jr., who is also coming off of a loss. Last year, Golden Boy and HBO were doing a great job in bringing PPV quality fights to free TV and now they're just heading backwards. Hopefully, that trend will not continue in the future.