Garcia Grabs A KO Victory Over Rios, Winning The WBC Title Eliminator
LAS VEGAS – Danny “Swift” Garcia brought another win back home to Philadelphia tonight. Following the Philadelphia Eagles Super Bowl win, Garcia grabbed a knockout victory over “Bam Bam” Brandon Rios in their WBC welterweight title eliminator.
In the middle of round nine, Garcia (34-1, 20 KOs) took a slight step back, jabbed Rios and set up a solid right hand over the top that threw Rios’ neck right and then left before he went down. Rios (34-4-1, 24 KOs) got up before the ten count, but referee Kenny Bayless waved off the fight at 2:25 after Rios’ corner signaled to stop the fight and Rios walked a bit wobbled to Bayless.
“It was a tough fight. I knew Brandon was going to come to fight. He trained hard for this fight. It was an opportunity for him to show the world that he is still a top fighter. It was a good fight until the fight ended,” said Garcia. “Me and my pop had a good game plan, staying in front of him a little a bit. Move a little bit, and we did it, and we got the job done.”
“I knew he was going to be in front of me, he’s a tough vet. He’s a good inside fighter. He had a better jab than I thought he had,” said Garcia on Rios. “He had a really good jab, with good timing. He worked good on the inside, but we knew what he was going to do, so we just had to stay composed and just follow the game plan till the fight was over.”
The 12-round bout was the main event for Showtime Boxing presented by Premiere Boxing Champions that took place at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Garcia, usually a slow starter, had to work early in the fight as Rios stayed in front of him and made Garcia work. The second round seemed equally yoked with boxing and brawling. Both guys had their moments of hard punches, but Garcia stole the round. A left hook from Garcia upstairs rocked Rios back just at the bell of the end of round three. By the seventh round, Garcia was able to utilize his footwork and move a little around Rios.
Rios discussed his changes in his weight and strength and conditioning, speaking out how he would deliver a better performance than he had been in recent fights. Rios was able to stay in front of Garcia throughout the fight, cutting off the ring as much as possible. He delivered hard punches on Garcia in his highlighted moments. At the time of the stoppage, judges Dave Moretti had the fight 78-74 for Garcia, Glenn Trowbridge had it 79-73 for Garcia and Steve Weisfeld had it 79-73 for Garcia.
“It was a minor mistake, it was my fault. I got up too quick and maybe the corner felt I was still hurt, but of course when you get caught with a great jab and over right, what ever you’re coming with. Danny got power,” said Rios, upset about the conclusion of the fight. “You try to get up too quick, of course you’re going to be wobbly, but (explicit) man. He got me very good, it was my fault because I threw a lazy jab. I brought my hand down. I paid the consequence.”
“I felt great, I felt strong. I wasn’t even tired, nothing like that. I felt in perfect shape. Like I said it was just the fact that I threw a lazy jab, he came over he caught me, and what else can I say? I think I got up too fast, it was a rookie mistake. I’ve never been knocked down before. My corner thought I was hurt, I didn’t think I was hurt, I could have kept going.”
“Right now he’s hurt, cause it was a fight he didn’t want to lose. He really trained hard and was motivated. He did everything right, and that’s probably what hurts him the most,” said Robert Garcia, trainer of Rios. “I do love Brandon and I really don’t want to see him get hurt. I got to go back and see the fight again. I was telling the inspector to stop the fight, the inspector was telling me ‘You’re the one who has to jump in’. If I’m not mistaken, by the time I jumped in, Kenny Bayless had already stopped it. Maybe the ref had already stopped it before I stepped in.”
WBC super middleweight world champion, David Benavidez defended his title successfully in a rematch with Ronald Gavril on the co-main event card.
Benavidez (20-0, 17 KOs), boxing’s youngest champ, and the first ever youngest WBC world super middleweight title holder, didn’t deliver his promise to stop the Romanian, Gavril, but left him battered from the 12 rounds of accurate punches. In the fourth round, Benavidez landed a clean upper cut followed with a left and hurt Gavril as Gavril wobbled to the ropes. Gavril (18-3, 14 KOs) was cut in round six above his right eye that was caused by a punch. By the eighth, Gavril was showing signs of slowing down, but he kept coming forward with the champ and not giving up even though he was eating Benavidez’s punches. Gavril was ready to go home by the tenth round, but Benavidez remained doing enough to keep racking up the points. He utilized his jab mainly in the last two rounds.
Judges Robert Hoyle and Glenn Feldman scored it 120-108 and Julie Lederman scored it 119-109 all for Benavidez.
Yordenis Ugas (21-3, 10 KOs) became the second mandatory to IBF world welterweight champion, Errol “The Truth” Spence, Jr. after stopping Ray Robinson (24-3, 12 KOs) in the seventh round of their scheduled 12-round title eliminator bout.
Ugas-Robinson opened the televised portion of the card in a solid crowd pleaser. In the opening round, Robinson hit the canvas from a right hand, and both boxers finished the round going at it until the end of the bell. Throughout the fight, Ugas kept finding openings to land solid body shots and had no trouble with Robinson’s southpaw style, always finding a his right hand landing. At the end of the fourth round, referee Robert Byrd deducted a point from Robinson after he retaliated a shot back to Ugas after the bell, and Ugas hit the canvas. Byrd gave a solid warning to Ugas at his corner. Round seven, Ugas landed a hard right hand that caused Robinson to sit hard on the canvas. Robinson was able to continue and Ugas went on attack mode, throwing flurries of one-twos at the corner before Byrd stepped in and stopped the bout at 1:05 of the seventh round.
At the time of the stoppage, judges Tim Cheatham had it 60-52 for Ugas, Dave Moretti had it 60-53 for Ugas and Steve Marrow had it 59-54 for Ugas.
Some celebrity boxers sitting at ringside included, WBC world lightweight champion, Mikey Garcia, unified world champion, Keith “One Time” Thurman, former world champion,”Showtime” Shawn Porter (who called Garcia out in the ring after the win), WBC super welterweight champion, Jermell Charlo and Rances Barthelemy.
Purses for tonight fighters include:
Danny Garcia – $1.25 million, Brandon Rios – $500K
David Benavidez – $400K, Ronald Gavril – $125K
Yordenis Ugas – $40K, Ray Robinson – $30K
Other bouts results:
Lionell Thompson (19-5, 11 KOs) vs. Edwin Rodriguez (30-2, 20 KOs) – Rodriguez wins a unanimous decision over Thompson. Judges scored it 93-97 (2x) for Rodriguez and 94-96 for Rodriguez.
Ladarius Miller (15-1, 5 KOs) vs. Carlos Padilla (16-7-1, 10 KOs) – Miller wins via TKO in round two.
Andres Cortes (7-0, 4 KOs) vs.Fatiou Fassinou (8-9, 4 KOs) – Cortes wins a unanimous decision win over Fassinou. Judges scored it 60-54 all for Cortes.
Brian Gallegos (6-1, 4 KOs) vs. Sulaiman Segawa (9-0, 3 KOs) – Segawa wins via split decision over Gallegos. Judges scored it 58-56 for Gallegos, 56-58 (2x)
Jonathan Esquivel (7-0, 6 KOs) vs. Cameron Burroughs (4-3, 3 KOs) – Esquivel wins via TKO at 1:58 in round two.
Joe Spencer (1-0, 1 KO) vs. Uriel Gonzalez (1-3-1, 1 KO)- Spencer wins via TKO at 2:21 in round two.
Photos by Luis Mejia/Supreme Boxing, Article by Anna Aguilar/SupremeBoxing.
