By Ryan Burton

BoxingScene.com has been advised that a fight between former WBA/WBO/IBF lightweight champion Juan "Baby Bull" Diaz (39-4) and Ray Beltran (29-6) is close to being finalized for June 28th.  The fight will serve as the HBO televised co-feature to the Terrence Crawford-Yuriorkis Gamboa main event.  The fight card will take place at the CenturyLink Center in Crawford's hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.

Diaz has informed BoxingScene.com that he has already agreed to the fight. Diaz is 4-0 with 2 knockouts since returning to the ring last year after a nearly three year hiatus.  He had retired in 2010 after suffering back to back defeats to Juan Manuel Marquez and Paulie Malignaggi.

Beltran's manager Steven Feder confirmed that the fight is being discussed but cautioned that nothing had been finalized.  Beltran is 4-0-1 his last five fights with the lone blemish being a highly controversial draw to Ricky Burns in the Scotsman's backyard that most observers felt Beltran had clearly done enough to win.

Beltran is already the mandatory challenger to Crawford's WBO lightweight belt so the winner of the fight will likely face the winner of the main event in the near future.

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