By Dan Ambrose: #1 WBO featherweight contender Miguel “Mikey” Garcia (28-0, 24 KO’s) will likely be the next challenger for WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (38-11-2, 26 KO’s) after Garcia stopped 24-year-old 2nd tier fighter Bernabe Concepcion (29-6-1, 15 KO’s) in the 7th round last Saturday night on the undercard of Salido’s fight against Juan Manuel Lopez at the Coliseo Roberto Clemente, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Garcia, 24, knocked Concepcion down with jab followed by two solid right hands that put him down. After he got up, Garcia manhandled Concepcion on the ropes until referee Luis Pabon stopped the fight at 2:33 of the round.

Garcia, however, doesn’t look to be nearly ready for a fighter like Salido; not even close to being ready. It’s like night and day watching the two fighters. Garcia would have HUGE problems against the guy that Salido beat last night Lopez. Garcia simply is too ramrod straight up, doesn’t throw enough punches, doesn’t appear capable of throwing a lot of punches, head hunts too much and mainly jabs and looks for opportunities to occasionally throw a big right hand. Garcia appears to be a product of too much soft matches, as he fights like he assumes everyone will fall over when he eventually does throw his rare right hands. The thing of it is his opposition has been so god awful poor that Garcia has been able to get away with this fighting style. He doesn’t throw a lot of punches because the guys he’s been put in with collapse when he hits them. However, he doesn’t appear to be a harder puncher than either Lopez or Salido and those guys are capable of throwing massive amounts of power punches with the same power that Garcia throws if not more. Garcia can’t fight those guys, because he’s not ready. He’ll get destroyed if he comes out there poking around with his jab expecting them to fall when he throws an occasional right hand. It would be a sickening slaughter because Garcia would be getting lit up with one shot after by Lopez and Salido, and his rare right hand responses would be so far after the fact like it wouldn’t be funny. Garcia would be too late in firing back anything and would be drilled out in quick fashion.

Garcia’s management need to go back to the drawing board with this guy, retool his game, put him in with MUCH better opposition that actually can fight back and up his work rate 100%. The guy fights like he thinks he’s a knockout artist, but he doesn’t hit any harder than Lopez or Salido and a lot of the other top fighters. Yeah, Garcia has a lot of knockouts on his record, but look at the awful opposition he’s been put in with. Salido would have a perfect knockout record if he was matched against the guys that Garcia has put in with. Garcia’s trainer needs to keep him far, far away from Salido because this guy doesn’t throw enough punches, stands up too straight, and seems to think he can knock everyone out with one or two punches. Believe me, that won’t happen against Salido and it’s going to be a rude awakening for Garcia. The fighter that Garcia reminds me of is Robert Guerrero, but without the excellent body punches, high work rate and good boxing skills. I rate Guerrero as a much better overall fighter than Garcia and I think he would beat him by a lopsided decision if they fought.