On Saturday night at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, Mikey Garcia (32-0, 27KO’s) was supposed to make his first defense of his WBO Featherweight Belt. But then things got strange, he didn’t make the mandatory 126 featherweight limit and came in two pounds over. Out on the street, rumor was that his opponent would be the one who would not make the weight, not the champion. This in turn, left him in an awkward and embarrassing situation, which meant he would still have to fight, but only his opponent, former world champion Juan Manuel Lopez (33-3KO’s) had a chance at the vacant belt.
At the weigh-in, Garcia looked completely drained as opposed to his opponent, who made the weight and looked fresh and ready to go. Before the fight, his brother and famous boxing trainer Robert Garcia told the media he wasn’t giving any excuses for Mikey or himself, but that Mikey wasn’t feeling right and that he had a fever leading up to the fight. Since Mikey had been training so well, he decided to let him take some time off to get strong again, although this ended up being four days. On Monday, Mikey was too much overweight, and the last two pounds were just impossible to drop.
Robert Garcia told NTF that Mikey still had blurry vision the morning before the fight, and that he had thrown up. His trainer went on to say that he and Mikey were a little worried about the weight issue, because Mikey was still seeing double vision, but he rested and rehydrated himself and felt much better.
After the first round, Garcia was controlling the fight with his straight left jab as the southpaw Lopez attempted to get in close to land his left hand. There was obvious excitement from the mostly Mexican fans in the huge crowd in attendance and they cheered Garcia on until the end of the round.
As the second round started, Garcia landed a nice left to the head of Lopez as he backed away in the ring. Lopez attempted to jab his way in to get closer to Garcia, but he was slowed down by another left hand. Garcia then followed up with landing a quick left hand and then landed a huge right hand that sent Garcia to the canvas. Garcia then got up and took the count and then tried to force the action until the bell sounded.
As the bell sounded for the third round and with the crowd anticipating something spectacular, Garcia started off by landing a stiff left hand to the head of Lopez. After getting caught with the left hand, Lopez followed up with his jab, but Garcia countered his way out of the punches. The Mexican crowd then began chanting Garcia’s name as the fight continued. At the end of the round, Garcia just missed a big right hand to the head of Lopez and as the bell sounded, he raised his hand as he walked to his corner.
In the final round, Lopez tried to land his jab, but the confident Garcia countered everything that Lopez had. Garcia moved forward and then landed a nice right hand to the head of Lopez, then Lopez landed his own right hand to the head of Garcia. Suddenly Garcia landed a massive left hook to the head of Garcia and he hit the canvas. Lopez slowly got up and the referee stopped the fight by TKO at 1:35 of the fourth round.
It may have been some satisfaction to win the fight in such exciting fashion, but it still left Garcia disappointed by not being to make his first defense of his former title. His brother and trainer Robert Garcia told NTF that Garcia does not want to go out losing his title on the scale and that Mikey was ashamed of that and wants to win his title back. A potential fight with the super featherweight champion Rocky Martinez could be possible at the end of the year.
Undercard:
Terence Crawford wins the NABO Lightweight title against Alejandro Sanabri by KO at seventeen seconds of the sixth round.
Angel Sigala, Arlington, Texas loses to middleweight Kurtiss Colvin by TKO at 2:38 of the fifth round.
Ramon Alejandro Pena falls to John Karl Sosa by KO at 1:54 of the second round.
Vanes Martirosyan, trained by Freddie Roach, defeats Ryan Davis by TKO at 2:10 of the second round.
Matt Korobov wins against Ossie Duran in round three by TKO.
Mikael Zewski defeats Damian Frias by unanimous decision.
Oscar Valdez takes out Gil Garcia by second round TKO at 2:32 of the second round.
Tony Lopez, local fighter with Standing Eight, defeated Jonathan Hernandez with a spectacular performance by stopping his opponent by KO at 33 seconds of the third round.
Also in attendance at the American Airlines in Dallas, Texas were the following great champions and future champions:
Big George Foreman
Curtis Cokes of Dallas, Texas.
Paulie Ayala of Fort Worth, Texas
Roberto Marroquin, Top Rank fighter from Dallas, Texas.
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