JORGE ARCE vs ISIDRO GARCIA

An exciting winner over Rafael Concepcion in September, Jorge “Travieso” Arce is quickly back in action with a 12-rounder against respected veteran Isidro Garcia on Saturday’s pay-per-view show in Las Vegas.

Arce will be defending his 115-pound belt on Saturday but apparently he’s still talking of going up to 122 pounds for an ambitious match against Israel Vazquez. Any chance of such a fight happening would surely evaporate if Arce struggles on Saturday.

Garcia, 32, is a respectable enough opponent but it would be a stunning surprise if he somehow managed to pull off an upset against the popular drawing card.

Arce, 29, seemed to be slowing down in a couple of his recent fights but he was back to his old, rampaging himself against Concepcion, when he came back from a couple of wobbly moments to overpower the game but relatively inexperienced Panamanian in nine rounds.

The slight concern I have about Saturday’s fight is that comes quite soon after the war with Concepcion, but my suspicion is that the Arce team do not view Garcia as presenting much of a threat.

Garcia, a former flyweight champion, has boxing ability and normally shows a good chin, but he seems to be a fighter in decline. He was well beaten by prospect Raul Martinez in his last fight, while last year he was retired by his corner after seven rounds against undefeated bantamweight Abner Mares. Although Garcia was never off his feet in that bout he suffered a badly swollen and closing eye, and the bigger Mares was starting to overpower him.

I think that Garcia can box well enough to be competitive in the early rounds, but he is not a very hard hitter at this level and I think that by the sixth round he will be struggling to keep Arce off of him.

Arce looked in terrific shape at the weigh in and as ever he seems eager to get in the ring and start throwing punches.

The fight is a showcase for Arce, of course, and I expect him to put on a pleasing show, going after Garcia and trying to hurt him to the body right from the start. Garcia has the seasoning and smart boxing skills to survive the expected early attack and perhaps get into the bout to some extent, because Arce is always easy to hit as he takes the fight to his opponent. Gradually, though, Garcia is likely to be worn down by Arce’s superior strength and firepower. I don’t see Garcia making it to the final bell — I think that Arce’s body punching will have weakened him to the point where the referee will feel obliged to inetrvene, probably around the ninth round.