By Tim Williams: Former World Boxing Council (WBC) light flyweight champion Jorge Arce (51-4-1, 39 KOs) overcame an unsteady start, in which he took a lot of punishment, to come and strop former World Boxing Organization (WBO) flyweight champion Isidro Garcia (25-6-2, 8 KOs) in the 4th round to win the interim WBA super flyweight title at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Arce, an old 29, hurt Garcia with a left to the body in the 4th round, and then hurt him with a left to the head. Arce then dropped him with a left to the body. After Garcia got up, Arce backed him up to the ropes where he unleashed a flurry of unanswered punches ending with referee Tony Weeks stepping in and halting the fight at 0:48 of the 4th round. Afterwards, Arce called out super bantamweight champion Israel Vasquez.
In the first round, Garcia, 32, pounced on Arce, pounding away at him with fast punches to the body and head, and showing that he had the faster hands than the slightly younger Arce. Initially, Arce tried to stay on the outside, moving around the ring and using his jab. However, Garcia quickly cut off the ring on Arce, forcing him to abandon his strategy of boxing and making him slug it out with him.
This is a style that Arce has used mostly during his long 12-year boxing career. However, he was exposed in his fight last year in April, losing a lopsided 12-round decision to Cristian Mijares. Since that time, Arce has tried to box more, but Garcia was having none of it, forcing him to come back to his old style of fighting. Near the end of the first round, Garcia gestured for Arce to come forward and mix it up with him. Arce, however, had taken a beating in the round and looked timid, not wanting to mix it up anymore.
In the second round, Garcia continued to force Arce to trade with him at close range, bloodying Arce’s nose in the process with fast combinations. In the last minute for the round, both fighters went toe-to-toe at close range, at which time Garcia hit Arce with a hard left uppercut causing his nose to bleed.
In the 3rd round, Arce came out boxing from the outside, throwing double and triple jabs to the head of Garcia and preventing him from landing. Every once in awhile, Arce would stop, throw a left-right combination, and then start moving again to prevent Garcia from landing his faster shots.
Garcia continued to motion for him to stop moving and come at him so that he could go toe-to-toe, but Arce held off until the last minute of the round when he finally obliged Garcia and went at it briefly, hitting him with a series of hard shots to the head and body. At the start of the 4th round, Arce hurt Garcia with a combination to the head. He then dropped Garcia with a left to the body.
After he got up, Arce met him with 12 unanswered punches as Garcia attempted to cover up on the ropes. At this point, referee Tony Weeks moved in and halted the fight with Garcia still on his feet. Overall, Arce looked okay, but he’s starting to show his age now. One would hope that he doesn’t choose to fight Vazquez or Vic Darchinyan, because both would probably make easy work of him at this point in his career.