Juan Diaz returns vs. Cuevas Jr. on April 13

Former unified lightweight titleholder Juan "Baby Bull" Diaz will end a ring absence of two years and nearly nine months when he faces Pipino Cuevas Jr. on April 13 at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas in the main event to be televised on FOX Sports Networks, FOX Deportes and Fuel TV, Golden Boy formally announced on Monday.

The story was originally reported by RingTV.com.

Promoted by Golden Boy Promotions in association with Leija and Battah Promotions, Diaz (35-4, 17 knockouts), of Houston, will meet the son of a former titleholder in Cuevas (16-9, 14 KOs), a 33-year-old from Mexico City.

Diaz is 2-4 over his past six fights, during which he defeated contender Michael Katsidis by split-decision, split bouts with current WBA welterweight titleholder Paulie Malignaggi, and lost twice to four-division titlewiner Juan Juan Manuel Marquez, being stopped in the ninth round of their first matchup in the Fight of The Year in February of 2009.

A 29-year-old whose last fight was the unanimous decision loss to Marquez in July of 2010, Diaz was 33-0 with 17 knockouts before being dethroned as IBF, WBA and WBO 135-pound beltholder following a unanimous decision loss to Nate Campbell in March of 2008.

Prior to that, Diaz had made seven successful defenses, four of them by stoppage, of the WBA title he won by unanimous decision over Lakva Sim in July of 2004.

That run included knockouts of former titleholders Acelino Freitas and Julio Diaz in the eighth and ninth round in April and October of 2007, respectively. Juan Diaz added Freitas' WBO belt, and Julio Diaz's IBF title.

Photo by Ethan Miller, Getty Images

Lem Satterfield can be reached at lemuel.satterfield@gmail.com