By Chris Williams: Mikey Garcia (33-0, 28 KO’s) had to get up off the deck in the 2nd round to come back to stop WBO super featherweight champion Roman “Rocky” Martinez (27-2-2, 16 KO’s) with a left to the body in the 8th round to capture his WBO title on Saturday night at the American Bank Center, in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Garcia was knocked down by a right hand to the head in the 2nd round. But from 3rd round on, Garcia dominated the action with his hard shot. Martinez might have had a better chance to win the fight if he had a little bit of power and if he had left his hands go. Garcia did look vulnerable when he was getting hit, but Martinez didn’t have the power or the work rate to win.
In the 8th round, Garcia hurt Martinez with two solid right hands to the head that backed him up to the ropes. Garcia then nailed Martinez to the body with a left hand that dropped him for the 10 count.
Garcia may find it hard to find interesting fights at super featherweight because the division is barren of big names and he may have to look at featherweight or preferably the lightweight division for bigger names. It would be interesting to see Garcia against Gary Russell Jr. or better yet Terence Crawford. I would pick Crawford to beat Garcia. Like I said, there really isn’t anyone interesting for Garcia to fight in the super featherweight division that boxing fans will recognize.
This fight, like the Vic Darchinyan vs. Nonito Donaire fight card, was pretty much a mismatch with Donaire and Garcia matched against guys that they were destined to beat. I would have liked to see Garcia in with someone good, and no I didn’t rate Roman Martinez as a good fighter. I saw him as the weakest of the super featherweight champions and the outcome was predictable. If Garcia is going to stay at super featherweight, then I’d like to see him facing WBA champion Takashi Uchiyama. I see him as the best guy at this weight class. The rest of the guys are mediocre at best, and hardly worth Garcia wasting his time in fighting. He should stick around at this weight long enough to fight Uchiyama. If he can’t get that fight then he needs to move up to lightweight to go after the likes of Crawford, Ricky Burns, Raymundo Beltran, Miguel Vazquez, Richard Abril, Omar Figueroa and Antonio DeMarco.
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Nonito Donaire (32-2, 21 KO’s) was forced to rally tonight to stop 37-year-old Vic Darchinyan (39-6-1, 28 KO’s) in the 9th round tonight at the American Bank Center, in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA. Donaire looked like a shell of himself tonight in taking a real pounding from Darchinyan. It wasn’t just that Donaire didn’t look confident. His reflexes don’t seem to be there anymore from where he was in 2012, and he looks like he’s aged.
Donaire looked bad for 8 rounds and was taking a beating from Darchinyan. However, in the 9th he caught Darchinyan down with a left hand to put him on the canvas. After Darchinyan got back to his feet, Donaire landed at will with pot shots until referee Lawrence Cole stepped in to halt the bout at 2:05 of the round.
The fact that Donaire had to struggle to beat a way past his best pumped up super flyweight in Darchinyan doesn’t bode well for Donaire as far as him moving forward in the featherweight division. Donaire doesn’t belong at featherweight and once he faces an actual featherweight like WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido, who Donaire wants to face next, then he’s probably going to take a beating and get knocked out by Salido. Donaire doesn’t have the size or the frame to compete at featherweight, and he’ll find that out as soon as he gets the fight with Salido. Hopefully, Donaire’s promoter Bob Arum will sit Donaire down and steer him away from the featherweight division and let him know this his frame is too small for the division.
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Unbeaten Demetrius Andrade (20-0, 13 KO’s) remained unbeaten with a 12 round split decision victory over previously undefeated Vanes Martirosyan (33-1-1, 21 KO’s) to capture the vacant WBO junior middleweight title. The final judges scores were 114-113, 117-111 for Andrade, and 115-112 for Martirosyan. Andrade was dropped by a hard left hook to the head from Martirosyan in the 1st round. Many of the other rounds were close with the exception of the 6th, which Andrade totally dominated. Martirosyan fought well for most of the fight, but he definitely faded from the 8th round on, as he left Andrade control the action. When Martirosyan was pressing the fight, he did very well. But unfortunately for him, he just wasn’t consistent enough and he ended up giving away the fight.
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Other boxing results on the card:
Alex Saucedo KO 3 Steve Hall
Nicholas Walters TKO 4 Alberto Garza
Erick De Leon UD 4 Jesus Aguinaga
Oscar Valdez TKO 5 Jesus Lule Raya
Oscar Cantu UD 6 Roberto Ceron
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