By Ryan Burton

Top Rank matchmaker Brad Goodman has advised BoxingScene.com that unbeaten super lightweight prospect Arnold Barboza Jr. (17-0) will face Mike Reed (23-1) on March 10th, as part of the undercard to the featherweight clash between Oscar Valdez and Scott Quigg undercard. 

Valdez will defend his WBO featherweight title against the former super bantamweight champion in the ESPN headliner at the Stubhub Center in Carson, California.

The 26-year-old Barboza, who is from nearby Los Angeles, will have the crowd on his side against Maryland's Reed.  Barboza went 3-0 in 2017 while Reed went 2-1.

However, Reed, who is 25-years-old, suffered the first blemish of his pro career in his last ring outing.

In an ESPN televised main event, he dropped and stopped in only two rounds when matched against the Freddie Roach trained Jose Ramirez in November.

Coming off such a disappointing setback will make the upcoming clash with Barboza a must-win fight.

Sonora Mexico's Valdez (23-0) had two exciting title defenses in 2017 against Miguel Marriaga and Genesis Servania. Against Servania, Valdez went down the first time in his career as he got off the canvas in the fourth round to floor the Filipino in the fifth in route to an unanimous decision victory.

Quigg (34-1-2), who is promoted by Eddie Hearn's Matchroom Boxing, is 3-0 since suffering his lone defeat to Carl Frampton in their 2016 super bantamweight title unification clash. He is now being trained by Freddie Roach.

Valdez-Quigg will be Top Rank's third card of the year on ESPN under their recently signed output agreement.  WBO super middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez faces Habib Ahmed in the main event of their first card of the year on February 3rd while Ray Beltran battles Paulus Moses for the vacant WBO lightweight title in their Febuary 16th headlining bout.

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