Spence Jr vs Garcia [RECAP]

Spence Jr vs Garcia [RECAP]

By Gary Kittilsen

Mikey Garcia’s dare to be a great fight and admirable attempt to become a five-division world champ and perhaps capture the top pound for pound sport in the sport did not go according to plan. The Native Texan Errol “The Truth” Spence lived up to his nickname and delivered a masterful performance in front of his hometown crowd of 47,525 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

The biggest fight of 2019 on US soil started of cautiously with both fighters feeling each other and firing off jabs. To the surprise of many, it was Spence that was outboxing and outmaneuvering Garcia and carrying the early rounds on his jab and movement, winning each of the first three rounds on all three scorecards.

The fourth round saw both fighters pick up the pace a bit, again the action was dominated by the bigger man. “The Truth” landed at will from long-range with right-hooks and left hands starting to wear the smaller Garcia down to the body. The fifth saw an urgent Garcia really pick up the pace and despite a sharp counter right that caused Spence to cover up for a moment the action was still thoroughly carried by Spence.

By the second half of the fight, it became clear that Spence was in complete control and in the midst of a star-making performance. The brute force became too much and for the first time, Garcia looked to be in survival mode as Spence poured on the punishment.

The closing rounds were academic and repetitive as Spence battered the smaller opponent up to the head and body landing vicious right hooks to the body and lead lefts to flush on the chin of Garcia.

After the 9th round, Robert Garcia tells his little brother that he is going to stop the fight, Mikey protested and insists he had enough left and Robert agreed to let him out for more. It was all to no avail The Texan continued the one-sided beat down over the final nine minutes of the fight and not only takes a unanimous decision over the younger Garcia brother but takes every round on every scorecard including a 10-8 round in the 11th on the scorecard of veteran judge Glenn Feldman.

Spence ran his record to 25-0 (21) and made the third defense of his IBF 147-pound strap that he won from Kell Brook back in May of 2017. During the post-fight in-ring interview Spence was joined by WBA “Regular” Champ Manny Pacquiao in which the two mutually expressed interest in fighting each other. When Spence was asked about fighting the legendary 8 division world champ next he said ” Yes, why not? We’ll give the fans a good fight… He’s broken records here (AT&T Stadium) before, he’s a legend in the sport and it’d be my honor to fight him next.”

For Garcia, his record fell to 39-1(30) but he still holds the WBC lightweight title, he was less clear about his future saying he was open to going back down to 135 for a unification fight with Vasyl Lomanchenko but wanted to talk over his next move with his brother and father and go from there.

The undercard had two other fights of note. Two undefeated former champs who have been stripped of their titles for various reasons bounced back with sensational victories. David Benavidez stepped into the ring for the first time in 13-months after being suspended for testing positive for cocaine and made easy work of longtime super middleweight contender J’Leon Love scoring a vicious second-round stoppage.

Luis “Pantera” Nery improved his perfect record to 29-0 (23) scoring a fourth-round TKO over McJoe Arroyo in which Pantera, dropped his man on four separate occasions in the one-sided beatdown in a bantamweight non-title fight