Prada and Garcia Fight To a Draw

By Boxing News - 06/06/2008 - Comments

prada4646346.jpgBy Manuel Perez: undefeated light middleweight Carlos Garcia (2-0-1, 2 KOs) fought to an exciting four-round draw on Wednesday night at the Aviator Sports Arena, in Brooklyn, New York. Garcia, 19, was knocked down twice in the 1st round after walking into right hands thrown by Prada. In the 2nd round, Garcia returned the favor, knocking Prada down with a powerful right hand. In the 4th and final round, Garcia knocked Prada down for the 2nd time in the fight after nailing him with a big right.

However, given the fact that Garcia was knocked down twice in the 1st and appeared to lose the 3rd round, the fight was eventually ruled a draw. The final judges’ scores were 36-36, 36-36 and 37-35 for Garcia. I personally thought Garcia won the fight by a narrow margin based on his strong finish in the 4th round. However, I’m also comfortable with the fight being scored as a draw, because it was a very close fight and difficult to pick a winner between the two of them.

The tall slender Garcia game out throwing bombs in the 1st round, thinking little of his defense, as he stalked Prada, 18, around the ring. Lacking any kind of jab whatsoever, Garcia was throwing tremendous shots and leaving him wide open as he was coming in. Prada, the fighter with the better overall boxing skills of the two, took advantage of Garcia’s lack of defense to tag him with a powerful right hand as he was attempting one of his own, dropping Garcia to the canvas.

Upon getting up, Garcia was pounded on by Prada, who nailed him several more right hands dropping Garcia to the canvas for the second time in the round. After receiving a standing eight count from the referee, Garcia was able to escape the round when the time ran out. It was extremely fortunate for Garcia, who was badly hurt and likely wouldn’t have made it out of the round without going down once or twice more.

In the 2nd round, Prada showed little respect for Garcia as he went after him with powerful left hands. Prada should have paid attention and been a little more cautious because a short while later, Garcia nailed Prada with a big right hand, knocking him to the canvas. Unlike Garcia who was only somewhat hurt on the 1st, Prada was badly hurt from the knockdown. However, Garcia was unable to finish him in the remainder of the round, missing a lot of his shots. For his part, Prada recovered quickly and by the end of the round he had turned things around somewhat and was now turning the attack back onto Garcia.

Prada continued fighting well in the 3rd round, hitting Garcia with a lot of left hands in the round. Garcia, however, began really letting his hands and both fighters ended up trading big shots in the last two minutes of the round. It appeared that Garcia had done enough to win the round, though, because of his cleaner shots landed.

At the start of the 4th round, Garcia caught Prada with a perfect right hand, dropping him to the canvas. Prada, previously boxing Garcia from the outside, seemed to forget his defense in the last round as he pushed himself to let his hands go in an effort to try and win the round. Against a fighter with power like Garcia, that’s not the wisest thing that Prada could have done. In the last two minutes of the round, Prada gamely attempted to regain what he had lost by throwing a lot of punches, but Garcia matched him and ended up appearing to win the round.