By Manuel Perez: Middleweight contender Miguel Angel Espino (20-2-1, 9 KOs) stopped Alejandro Garcia (26-5-1, 24 KOs)in the 6th round of a scheduled 10-round bout on Saturday night at the Playboy Mansion, in Beverly Hills, California. Espino, 29, dropped Garcia in both the 4th and 5th rounds with hard left hooks to the head. In between the 5th and 6th rounds, Garcia opted not to come out of the 6th round and the fight was stopped at 3:00 of the 6th by referee Jack Reiss.
Espino looked very impressive throughout, landing hard body shots and putting Garcia under a lot of pressure. Garcia looked good offensively in his own right, throwing with a lot of power and finding Espino easy to hit. However, Espino never let up on him and punished him to the body in every round.
Garcia seemed bothered equally by head and body shots, although he was ultimately dropped twice by big left hooks to the head.
Late in the 1st round, Espino caught Garcia up against the ropes and riddled him with combinations to the head and body before Garcia had the presence of mind to get off the ropes.
The 2nd round was close with both fighters trading big shots. Garcia, who has a remarkable 24 knockouts in his 26 wins, landed some hard combinations to the head of Espino. However, in the last seconds of the round, Espino let fly some powerful body shots to edge the round.
Espino would continue to land well to the body in rounds three and four, staying in Garcia’s face and hooking him hard over and over. Garcia was firing back well with his own power shots, mostly to the head. However, shortly after Garcia complained to the referee about being hit with a right hand rabbit shot by Espinio, Garcia was dropped by a big left hook to the head.
Fortunately for him, it came at the end of the round, because he would have had problems if there had been more time left for Espino to add to the damage. In the 5th round, Garcia was dropped once again after running into a left hook. This time there was a lot of time left in the round.
However, Garcia fought well, throwing back big shots at Espino and slowing him down somewhat from landing his body shots. Garcia knocked Espino’s mouthpiece out near the end of the round after hitting him with a nice left-right combination. After the action resumed, Garcia finished strong by landing several more shots.
In between rounds, Garcia decided he had enough and the referee Jack Reiss was informed.
Overall, Espino looked good, showing good power, especially when throwing to the body. However, it’s hard to see him as a top level guy based on this performance. He seems a little small and I didn’t like the way he was taking those shots from Garcia without blocking any of them.
Against a better fighter than what he faced on Saturday night, I think Espino would be mowed down. That said, I think he’s a good serviceable B-level fighter. Who knows? He may improve enough to someday be a good bottom level guy in the top tier. However, at 29, he doesn’t have much more time if he wants to accomplish that, and I can’t see it happening.