Garcia to meet Concepcion on March 10

Unbeaten featherweight contender Miguel "Mikey" Garcia will face hammer-fisted Bernabe Concepcion of the Philippines as the opener of a Showtime-televised card on March 10 from Coliseo Roberto Clemente, the Top Rank Promotions has announced.

The main event will be a rematch between WBO beltholder Orlando Salido and former titleholder Juan Manuel Lopez in Puerto Rico.

Coming off his sixth straight knockout and his 11th among his past 12 fights with a fourth-round stoppage of Juan Carlos Martinez in October, Garcia (27-0, 23 KOs) can earn a shot at the winner of Salido-Lopez II in victory over Concepcion (29-5-1, 15 KOs).

Lopez (31-1, 28 KOs) lost his WBO belt following an eighth-round knockout loss to Salido (37-11-2, 25 KOs) in April of last year, but he is coming off a second-round stoppage victory over Mike Oliver in October.

Salido's knockout of Lopez was his first of three straight. Fighting as a junior lightweight in his last bout, Salido rose from knockdowns in the third and fourth rounds before scoring an eighth-round stoppage of Weng Haya.

Lopez still was the titleholder in July of 2010, when he scored a second-round stoppage of Concepcion to end a match that featured each fighter being floored in the first round and Concepcion being dropped twice in the second.

Concepcion then lost his next bout by eight-round split-decision against Martinez, but rebounded with a 10-round split-decision over Aaron Garcia in his last fight in October.

Photo by Chris Farina, Top Rank Inc.

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