Amir Imam, who is mandatory challenger to the WBC junior welterweight title, will face Johnny Garcia at the Save Mart Arena in Fresno, California, on Saturday.

The 10-round bout will will be part of the preliminary action promoted by Top Rank. In the main event, light heavyweights Artur Beterbiev and Enrico Koelling will square off in a battle for the vacant IBF title.

The hard-hitting Imam (20-1, 17 knockouts) is hopeful of facing the winner of Jose Ramirez and Mike Reed, which also takes place on the same card. That bout would be a world title eliminator. Ramirez is currently ranked No. 3 by the WBC.

Both the Beterbiev-Koelling and Ramirez-Reed fights will air live on ESPN (10:30 p.m. ET/ 7:30 p.m. PT).

Imam has won his last two bouts by knockout against mediocre opposition. Those are his only two victories since he was sensationally stopped in eight rounds by Adrian Granados.

Garcia (19-5-1, 11 KOs) is winless in his five bouts. In his most recent outing, in March, he was stopped by Alex Saucedo in the second round in New York City.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for RingTV.com since October of 2013 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (Calif.) Star newspaper, Boxingscene.com, and FightNights.com. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing

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