By Francisco Salazar

Welterweight Francisco Santana will fight Ed Paredes on April 2, Top Rank matchmaker Brad Goodman told BoxingScene.com over the weekend.

The 10 round bout will take place at the Oceanview Pavilion in Port Hueneme, Calif. The city is adjacent to the well-known boxing town of Oxnard.

UniMas will broadcast the bout, along with the six-round co-feature clash.

Santana (23-4-1, 12 KOs) is coming off a sixth round knockout win over Arman Ovsepyan on December 12. It was his first fight in almost eight months, when he dropped a 10 round unanimous decision against Sadam Ali.

The loss snapped a 10-bout winning streak for Santana.

The 29-year-old Santana, who recently signed a managerial contract with Frank Espinoza, currently trains at Knuckleheadz Gym in nearby Ventura.

Paredes (36-5-1, 24 KOs) returned to the ring on December 26 after an over year-long layoff, knocking out Jesus Lora in the first round.

Prior to the Lora fight, Paredes lost back-to-back 10 round decision losses to Alfonso Gomez and Alan Sanchez.

Junior welterweight Luis Ramos (25-2, 10 KOs), who is also managed by Espinoza, will also see action on the Top Rank card in an eight round non-televised bout.

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