Diaz on Malignaggi: 'I want to Shut His Mouth Up'

Juan Diaz considered himself a problem child growing up in Houston before first donning boxing gloves as an 8-year-old -- a move that helped him to not only channel his nervous energy, but to focus, academically.

Since then, the sport has transformed the 26-year-old nicknamed, "Torito," or, "Baby Bull," into a world champion fighter as well as a University of Houston graduate with a political science degree this past May.

On Saturday night, Diaz (35-2, 17 KOs) will face New York's Paulie Malignaggi (26-3, five KOs) in a junior welterweight (140 pounds) rematch of Diaz's controversial, unanimous decision victory in August over Malignaggi before his hometown Houston fans.

Diaz won by 115-113, 116-112, and, 118-110, respectively, on the cards of Raul Caiz, David Sutherland, and Gale E. Van Hoy, while HBO's ringside official scorer, Harold Lederman, had Malignaggi winning, 115-113.

Diaz had earned the WBA lightweight (135 pounds) title and defended that crown three times before later adding the WBO and IBF titles. Diaz's lone defeats have come by split-decision to the crafty Nate Campbell, and via ninth-round KO in a Fight Of The Year candidate opposite Mexican great,Juan Manuel Marquez.

Diaz took time for a Q&A with FanHouse on Wednesday to discuss the Malignaggi fight-- which will be shown from Chicago's UIC Pavillion on HBO's Boxing After Dark -- as well as his future in boxing, and, potentially, in law.

FanHouse: Did coming off of that Feb. KO loss to Juan Manuel Marquez at 135 pounds and, the subsequent, move up to 140 to face Paulie Malignaggi have an effect on your performance against Malignaggi?

Juan Diaz: I believe that to some extent, that it did. I said it before, and I'll say it again. I went into the Malignaggi fight in August not 100 percent mentally prepared. Physically, I did everything that I was supposed to.

But my head wasn't completely into the Malignaggi fight. I still hadn't swallowed that tough pill that you have to swallow when you lose. Now, all of that is behind me. I'm just looking forward to putting forth a great fight on Saturday night.

FH: Did you in any way underestimate Paulie Malignaggi, coming off of that brawl with Juan Manuel Marquez and having to make an adjustment to a completely different style from one fight to the next?

Diaz: I didn't underestimate him. I never underestimate anybody or anyone. I train 100 percent. Now, I see that boxing is also a mental game. Just because you prepare yourself 100 percent, doesn't mean that you're going to go out there and perform well.

No matter how much work you put into the gym, if your heart, your soul, and your mind are not into the fight, you're not going to produce good outcomes or results.

I think that that was the main factor there. Not so much that I underestimated him, but that me, myself, I wasn't really in the fight enough to really focus on Malignaggi that night.

FH: If you had other options other than this rematch, then why didn't you take them rather than take a rematch with Paulie Malignaggi if you felt that you in fact won, unequivocally?

Diaz: I did have more options. The only difference is that Golden Boy Promotions told me that I was for sure guaranteed to fight next year, but not this year. I wanted to be active. I wanted to fight about three times a year.

I know that that's one of the reasons that I took this fight. I wanted to fight one more time this year. And on top of that, I've never had any controversy in my previous fights. I don't want to leave my fans with any controversial fights in my career.

That's the second reason why I took this rematch and wanted to fight. I wanted to put my fans at ease knowing that I don't have any controversies in my career.

Third of all, Malignaggi talks so much that I just want to shut his mouth up on Saturday night.

FH: Why do you feel like you won the last fight with Paulie Malignaggi?

Diaz: I felt that I landed the more precise punches and the more effective punches and, at the same time, I thought that my pressure was effective. On top of that, I don't think that the HBO commentators were giving me as much credit as they were him for the jabs.

I went back and looked at the fight, and he was throwing the soft jabs, and I was the one landing the more precise jabs. I believe that, overall, even though he threw more punches than I did, I was the one who connected with the more effective punches.

FH: Do you feel any need to change your approach to your last fight such as more pressure and upperbody and head movement, since Paulie Malignaggi has called you a one-dimensional, come-forward fighter who makes the fight easy for him?

Diaz: He's right about me being a pressure fighter and he's right also that in the first fight, I made it easy for him to hit me. Like I said, I wasn't 100 percent mentally ready for the fight.

Me being the hard worker that I am, I trained my butt off for the fight, but I went in there and just threw punches without even thinking, and it made it easy for him.

Now, there's other ways that you can put pressure on a fighter. You can go in moving your head, giving lateral movement. Even though you're pressuring, you're not making yourself an easy target for your opponent. That's what I didn't do in the first fight.

That's why I made it easy for him the last fight. No doubt about it, it's going to be different this fight. My mind is 100 percent on this fight. I've trained 10 hard weeks for this fight. I'm ready to go out there and erase any doubt.

FH: Did you attack the body enough?

Diaz: Another thing I didn't do in the first fight was that I didn't concentrate on the body. I was concentrating more on head shots, and we all know throughout Malignaggi's history of fighting is that he's a tough guy.

Malignaggi might not hit hard, but he can take a punch. I strictly focused on landing head shots instead of slowing him down to the body.

FH: Do you recall how you received the cuts on your left eyebrow?

Diaz: I don't remember accurately as to what round that it was, but I even signaled to the referee that he had elbowed me. That's what caused the really bad cut on my eyebrow. I had a cut right before that right below my eyebrow which wasn't really affecting me at all.

But the second cut, he threw an elbow, and you could see it when you watch the replay of the fight. He threw an elbow, and it started gushing out. That's when, blood being thicker than water, it started running down my eye and affecting me.

That's what can bother you as a fighter. The wiping it off, because I wanted to make sure that I saw every punch that was coming.

With the blood running down my eye, the only problem was me having to wipe it constantly and trying to stay focused at the same time on seeing what punches were coming.

FH: What are some of your options after this fight?

Diaz: I went up to 140 for these two fights because Malignaggi was a great opponent to try the division against. But I'm a natural lightweight. Throughout training camp, my strength and conditioning coach who is also a nutritionist was having to get me to eat more. There was times where I would come into the gym weighing 140 three or four weeks ago -- a long way away from this fight.

It depends on the opponent. I would love to fight Ricky Hatton, and I would stay at 140 for that. But if not, I'll go back down to 135 pounds and see what opportunities are there for me at lightweight.

FH: How were you a problem child and how did boxing help you with that?

Diaz: Boxing helped me because it released a lot of the stress that I had. I would say that I was a problem child because of my energy. I was an energized kid, so I would get up and disturb the class. All that I wanted to do was just run, run, run and just play and play.

That's why I was such a problem kid. I couldn't stay still. I guess that I was hyper-active. Once I started boxing, it took a lot of that energy away from me. Every day, I would go in the gym and work my butt off.

The next day, in the morning, I had to wake up early and go to school. So I started having less energy throughout the day and during school and it helped me to relax and improve my studies.

FH: How far are you into your college education right now?

Diaz: I graduated this past May from the University of Houston with a bachelor's degree in political science. I will be preparing for the LSAT test, which is a test that is required by law schools.

You can apply, and they want to see your score before they see whether they're going to accept you or not. I'm working on that now, and I'm going to take the test in February.

My plan is to take the test, get accepted to a law school, and then take some time off. I want to really concentrate on boxing while I'm young and I have strength. I can only do this sport, especially boxing, for a few years -- unlike bowling or golf.

I want to take advantage of my youth and concentrate on boxing as long as I'm at the top of my game.

FH: What sort of lawyer do you want to be?

Diaz: All of my immediate family are U.S. citizens now, 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.

At the same time, boxing has introduced me to so many managers and promoters and athletes, and I believe that working in a sports context would also be something I could also be helpful and useful in.

Not just with Latino fighters, but boxers in general. You don't have to be Latino or Spanish to need good representation. You have boxers of all backgrounds who are in need of being helped out.

Realistically, I'm 26 now, and I think that I have about two and a half good, solid years of doing this sport because I love it -- not just because it's a good payday.

I want to give this sport two more years for my fans to get good, action fights. I've accomplished a lot at a young age, and I don't want to get to the point that I'm just doing it because it's the only thing that I'm good at.