Bernabe Concepcion vs. Mikey Garcia mismatch on Lopez-Salido undercard on March 10th

By Chris Williams: If you want to see a slaughter on March 10th, you’ll need to make sure you tune in for undercard fight on the Juan Manuel Lopez vs. Orlando Saldio fight card between unbeaten featherweight contender Miguel Angel “Mikey” Garcia (27-0, 23 KO’s) and former featherweight contender Bernabe Concepcion (29-5-1, 15 KO’s) at the Coliseo Roberto Clemente in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

This is going to be a HUGE mismatch with Garcia leveling Concepcion in four or five rounds. It’s sad to see how dramatically Concepcion’s once promising career has gone downhill with his losses to Steve Luevano, Juan Manuel Lopez and Juan Carlos Martinez (19-13-1, 7 KO’s).

The loss to Martinez was especially baffling because Concepcion should have been able to beat a journeyman like him, but it shows you how far Concepcion has declined in his last five bouts. Concepcion has lost three out of his last five fights and that’s cause for concern. Garcia turned around and fought Martinez in his next fight after Martinez’s win over Concepcion, and Garcia easily stopped him by a 4th round TKO.

That tells you right there that Concepcion doesn’t belong in the same ring as Garcia and is likely going to get knocked out quick. I just hope that Concepcion doesn’t try to bum rush Garcia the way that Concepcion amateurishly rushed Lopez early in their fight in July 2010, because it’ll only bring about Concepcion’ destruction that much quicker.

Garcia, #1 WBA, #2 WBC, #3 WBO, #IBF, will possibly get to face the winner of the Salido vs. Lopez bout, although I kind of doubt it if Lopez is the one that emerges victorious. Bob Arum, Lopez’s promoter, wants to match him up against Nonito Doniare and/or Yuriorkis Gamboa in the near future, so he’s not going to let the young 24-year-old Garcia get a chance to mess up his plans by maybe doing what Salido did to Lopez by knocking him out.

Garcia and Lopez will stay in wide orbits of each other until the Donaire and Gamboa fights take place. Once those bouts out of the way, Garcia will likely be allowed to fight Lopez. But I can’t see it happening even then, because Lopez will probably get destroyed by Gamboa, so Arum will Lopez on the soft toast again for a one or two fights and then have him go after one of the weaker champions at featherweight. Garcia will be kept away from Lopez.

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