By Dan Ambrose: Mikey Garcia (31-0, 26 KO’s) defeated WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (39-12-2, 27 KO’s) by an eight round technical decision on Saturday night to capture his WBO title at Madison Square Garden in New York. Garcia knocked Salido down four times in the fight, twice in the 1st, once in the 3rd and once in the 4th rounds.
The fight was halted due to the 25-year-old Garcia suffering a broken nose in the 8th round on accidental head-butt from Garcia. The fight then went to the score cards and Garcia was given the decision by the scores 79-70, 79-69 and 79-69.
The New York crowd wasn’t happy with the stoppage, as they wanted the fight to continue. It’s normal for fighters to fight through broken noses and it just seemed strange to have this fight stopped. You wonder why Mikey didn’t fight through the pain. It looked kind of weak to me.
The timing of the stoppage was also in Garcia’s favor given that Salido was starting to get to Garcia from the 6th round and you could see Garcia wasn’t able to hurt Salido like he had in the first four rounds. The power was definitely starting to decrease for Mikey.
The referee needed to do a little better job of preventing Mikey from grabbing Salido by the head when he was coming forward. Garcia did that move all night long where he’d push down on Salido’s head while backing up to avoid his inside charge. That’s an illegal move, yet Mikey was able to get away with all night long. It was impossible situation for Salido considering he was having his head pushed while coming forward, and when he would get in close, Mikey would grab him in a clinch.
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