(Photo credit: Tom Casino/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (28-0, 16 KO’s) defeated challenger Mauricio Herrera (20-4, 7 KO’s) by a 12 round majority decision on Saturday night at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez, in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. The final judges scores were 114-114, 116-112, 116-112.
Herrera seemed to be the smarter fighter, and the one who took most of all of the last 6 rounds. Herrera landed more punches, and was the busier fighter by far. Garcia’s nose was bloodied and his eyes swollen up.
Herrera said “I felt like I won the fight. I know it was close, but I felt like I won the fight.”
Garcia fought well enough to lose by four rounds, but I’m not surprised that he got the win due to the fight taking place in his father’s home country. This was Garcia’s coming out party in Puerto Rico, so I think it would have taken a knockout for Herrera to get a win.
Garcia said “He’s a crafty veteran. Every time I step into the ring, everybody wants to take what I got. I’m a true champion. I made adjustments. I knew how to make adjustments. Once I got him on the ropes and started pressuring him, I knew I was doing good. I think making the weight might have affected my performance. I need to think about moving up in weight.”
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Unbeaten heavyweight contender Deontay Wilder (31-0, 31 KO’s) scored his 31st consecutive knockout in defeating Malik Scott (36-2-1, 13 KO’s) by a 1st round knockout. Deontay landed a left-right combination that put Scott down on the canvas. He tried to get back to his feet but he was too hurt to get up.
The crowd booed the stoppage because it Scott went down too easy. The punch that hurt Scott was a left hook to the side of his head. Deontay followed that with a straight right hand down the middle that appeared to be blocked by Scott. However, the shot still drove Scott’s gloves into his face, and that could have contributed to him being hurt.
“The left was to the temple,” Deontay said. “People don’t understand that even when you have your gloves up, you’re still being hit with 230 pounds of power. It still hurts. I don’t care if it don’t go past 4 rounds. I’m just on a mission to win the heavyweight championship of the world and bring it back to America. BOMB SQUAD!!!”
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In a career-saving win, Juan Manuel Lopez (34-3, 31 KO’s) stopped Daniel Ponce De Leon (45-6, 35 KO’s) in the 2nd round. De Leon dropped Lopez in the 2nd round. However, Lopez was able to get up off the canvas and knock a wide open De Leon down twice. The fight was halted officially at 2:44 of the 2nd round.
De Leon forgot about his defense after knocking Lopez down, and this gave Lopez the opportunity he needed to hurt De Leon.
The fight stoppage was highly controversial, because De Leon looked like he was able to continue fighting but the referee halted the fight anyway.
For Lopez, this is the second time he’s stopped the normally steel-chinned De Leon early. He knocked out in the 1st round in 2008 in a surprise stoppage. Lopez was at his best back then, but no one expected him to be able to knock him out again given how Lopez’s career has sunk in the last three years.
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Middleweight contender Daniel Jacobs (27-1, 24 KO’s) crushed Milton Nunez (26-10-1, 24 KO’s) in the 1st round in what was supposed to have been a competitive fight. Jacobs dropped Nunez three times before the fight was halted at 2:25 of the round. With this win, Jacobs could be challenging for the WBO middleweight title next against champion Peter Quillin.
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The hard hitting Ed Paredes (35-3-1, 23 KO’s) stopped George Sosa (13-7, 13 KO’s) in the 2nd round. Paredes was just way too powerful for Sosa to deal with. It’s time that Paredes think about stepping it up against better opposition soon.
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