On May 6th, former featherweight title challenger Bernabe Concepcion suffered a shocking loss to capable journeyman Juan Carlos Martinez inside of the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Appearing to be without focus and listless inside of the ring, Concepcion simply didn?t fight with any fire as he trudged his way towards an eight-round split-decision loss.
The drubbing was surprising, as the Rizal, Philippines native was looking to bounce back from a July 2010 knockout defeat to Juan Manuel Lopez, a fight in which Concepcion scored a first round knockdown but was bludgeoned one stanza later. Prior to the Lopez fight, Concepcion had looked strong and kept a busy work rate in his points win over Puerto Rico?s Mario Santiago and he seemed like a different fight than the man who stepped in with Martinez just five months ago.
Concepcion will look to erase the bad taste from his recent setbacks when he steps into the ring to face off with twice-beaten Aaron Garcia tonight at the San Manuel Casino in Highland, California. Speaking on that fight, all one has to do is hear of whom the 23-year old has been keeping company with to get a sense of his work ethic heading into the clash.
