By Francisco Salazar

Heavyweight Chris Arreola is not about to let a knockout loss in his last fight or recent elbow surgery prevent him capturing championship gold.

Arreola will return to action on March 13 against Curtis Harper at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, Calif., Goossen Promotions' Tom Brown told Boxingscene.com on Wednesday afternoon.

The eight round bout will not be part of the Spike TV telecast, but highlights of the bout could be shown to accommodate the two-hour "Premier Boxing Champions' broadcast.

Arreola (35-4, 31 KOs) has not fought since being stopped in the sixth round at the hands of Bermane Stiverne on May 10 in Los Angeles. 

The popular Mexican-American fighter was scheduled to return to the ring in a tune-up bout on December 11 in Temecula, Calif., but had to withdraw from the fight due to an injury to his left elbow. It was the same elbow Arreola had surgery on about two months after the Stiverne fight in May. 

Arreola has had more time to recover from the injury and has been recently training in Big Bear with trainer Henry Ramirez.

"He (Arreola) has been looking really good in camp," Ramirez told BoxingScene.com late Wednesday night. "One thing is training and another thing is an actual fight. (Regarding the elbow), we'll see how he looks next Friday."

Harper (12-3, 8 KOs), who resides in Jacksonville, Fla., has won his last five bouts in a row since losing back-to-back bouts in 2013 against Gerald Washington and Donovan Dennis, respectively. 

In his last bout on August 30, Harper won a six round unanimous decision over Jamal Woods. 

Francisco A. Salazar has written for Boxingscene.com since September of 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Salazar 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 Twitter at FSalazarBoxing