Baby Bull is back!!!!!!!

Soure: Dan Rafael ESPN boxing

The "Baby Bull" is back, or so Juan Diaz hopes.

Diaz, the former unified lightweight titleholder known for all-action fights, came to Las Vegas in April to attend the Marcos Maidana-Erik Morales fight and declared to a gathering of press members that he would be returning to the ring this summer.

Now Diaz has made it official, signing on for a one-fight deal with promoter Warriors Boxing to face David Torres in a scheduled 10-round lightweight bout at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas on July 29. The fight will headline ESPN2's "Friday Night Fights."

Opening the telecast will be Joel Casamayor (38-5-1, 22 KOs), another former lightweight titlist, against Jorge Teron (25-2-1, 17 KOs).

Diaz will be returning just two days shy of one year since his last fight, in which he lost a clear decision to lightweight champ Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas in an HBO PPV main event.

It was Diaz's second loss to Marquez, who knocked him out in the ninth round of their first meeting in the 2009 Fight of the Year. Losing to Marquez for the second time dropped Diaz to 2-4 in his last six fights -- and one of the victories, against Paulie Malignaggi in their first fight, came on a highly controversial decision.

But after a year off, Diaz said he feels refreshed and ready to make another title run.

"It's been awhile, and I am very excited and very pumped about being back in the ring," said Diaz, who has stayed busy in his native Houston running a trucking and construction business with his younger brother, Jose. "Last time I fought was July 31 last year, so it's going to be a year. So I'm looking forward to fighting again and showing people what I still have."

Diaz was accepted recently to law school, a goal he has talked about for years. He still wants to attend, he said, but hopes to defer his acceptance to University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Law School for a year to see what else he can accomplish in boxing.

"I have the acceptance letter from law school and I look at it every day and question myself every day if I am making the right decision," Diaz said. "I put it to the side and say law school can wait. What I really want is to become champion again, so I've been emailing back and forth with the university to see if I can work something out where they will let me defer for a year, because I don't think I want to go yet.

"I want to put another year or so into boxing, become world champion again, retire as champion and then go to law school."

The odds are probably against Diaz, who is an old 27 after all the grinding, high-contact slugfests he has been involved in.

"I don't feel old at all," Diaz insisted. "I get a lot of questions from people who think, as a veteran fighter, I must be, like, 33 years old or something. I'm only 27. There are guys barely challenging for world titles at that age, and I have already [won three major belts]. I think my best is right around the corner. I don't feel like a spring chicken, but I feel like I have a lot left in the tank."

Diaz was 20 when he claimed his first world title in 2004. He made seven defenses, including unifying three major belts with wins against titleholders Acelino "Popo" Freitas and Julio Diaz.

Juan Diaz's rough patch began in his next fight, when he lost a decision in an upset by Nate Campbell in March 2008.

"Juan wants to come back and recapture old glory," said Willie Savannah, Diaz's manager. "He wants to come back and see if he can recapture what he used to have. He wants to win a world title again. Juan seems to have the fire back. He's been training for three or four months and now he will get into training to get ready for a fight. If the fight was at the end of June, he would be ready."

Diaz is familiar with Torres (21-2-2, 13 KOs), 33, because they have sparred.

"I sparred with him a few times in the past and he's one of those guys who is real aggressive and has some good power to him," Diaz said. "He knows my strengths and weaknesses, just like I do his."

Diaz's promotional deal with Golden Boy ran out, and he said he would like to work with the company again in the future, but he accepted the Warriors offer because it allowed him to be on ESPN2 in front of a lot of viewers.

"I believe doing this with Warriors is a good opportunity and it's a good date on a good network, and that can only help me and put me in line for a future title shot," Diaz said. "The 'Baby Bull' is back. Boxing is still in my heart, still in my blood."

This could be good news he has been in some great scraps hope his year out has served him well because he looked like he was finished when he fought Marquez. I don't see him being a World champion again LW is to strong a division for a guy I fear we have seen the best of.

This fight still isn't up on boxrec?

it listed on boxingscene

Diaz has pulled out of the fight. He plans on attending law school.

Someone should change the title of this article then?

You might want to ask yourself why this thread suddenly appeared on the home page even though it is of no point to anyone. You might also want to have a look at who "bumped" the thread here, along with half a dozen other out of date articles.

These threads had one thing in common - the titles were typed in CAPITAL letters until they were edited.

Then take a look at the article in the announcement section.

This should provide you with the answer as to the juvenile behaviour of some of the currently not active members of this board.

Hobo wrote:You might want to ask yourself why this thread suddenly appeared on the home page even though it is of no point to anyone. You might also want to have a look at who "bumped" the thread here, along with half a dozen other out of date articles.

These threads had one thing in common - the titles were typed in CAPITAL letters until they were edited.

Then take a look at the article in the announcement section.

This should provide you with the answer as to the juvenile behaviour of some of the currently not active members of this board.

So does that mean Diaz is not coming back?

Shame if he retires, loved watching Juan fight a few years ago. He was excellent in his short lived prime, the Marquez fight ruined him, i thought he was gonna stop Marquez that night, he was battering him especially at the end of the rounds but the KO was unstoppable, can overall hold his head up very highly though, was a 20 year old when he won the WBA title, and was good in fights against Freitas, Diaz, Katsidis

PM for you, Ghosty.

Best of luck to him at law school; it was probably a good time for him to bow out after some of the fights he had - had he continued he may have ended up a slurring wreck.