Juan Diaz Set To Fight Fernando Garcia on UniMas Card

By Francisco Salazar

Former world titleholders Juan Diaz and Mike Alvarado have opponents for their respective bouts on March 19.

Diaz will fight Fernando Garcia in a 10 round bout at the Aerial Theater in Houston, Tex., Top Rank matchmaker Brad Goodman told Boxingscene.com Tuesday morning.

Alvarado squares off against Saul Corral in an eight round bout. Both fights will air on UniMas.

Diaz (40-4, 19 KOs) will be fighting for the first time in over a year and a half. Diaz was scheduled to fight on May 1 of last year, but tore his left rotator cuff during sparring a year ago this month. The Houston native has won his last five bouts in a row against modest opposition since a 12 round unanimous decision loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in July of 2010.

Garcia (30-7-2, 18 KOs) has also been absent from the ring, having not fought since October of 2014. In that bout, he was knocked out by Sharif Bogere in the fifth round. The Tijuana, Mexico resident had won three bouts in a row since being knocked out by Jose Felix in June of 2013.

Alvarado will make his long-awaited return to the ring since being stopped by Brandon Rios after the third round in January of last year.

Alvarado (34-4, 20 KOs) returns to the ring after dealing with personal matters outside of the ring. He has lost his last three bouts in a row, against the likes Rios, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Ruslan Provodnikov.

Corral (19-6, 10 KOs), who hails from Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico, has won his last seven bouts in a row, all against fighters with non-winning records.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (CA) Star newspaper, RingTV, and Knockout Nation. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitttter at FSalazarBoxing