By Manuel Perez: Undefeated IBF minimumweight champion Raul Garcia (26-0-1, 16 KOs) stopped his number #1 contender Ronald Barrera (24-6-1, 16 KOs) in the 6th round of a one-sided fight on Saturday night at the Estadio Arturo C. Nahl, La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Garcia, 26, opened a cut under the right eye of Barrera in the 6th round, and then unloaded on him with shots as he came forward to force stoppage by referee Rafael Ramos.
The bout was stopped at 2:26 of the round. Barrera’s cut had been examined moments for the stoppage by the ringside doctor and it seemed as if he wasn’t going to let the fight continue for much longer due to the severity of the injury.
Apart from the cut, it was a good stoppage because Barrera, from Colombia, was never in the least competitive in the fight and was just absorbing needless punishment at the time the bout was called to a halt.
Garcia, making his 3rd defense of his IBF minimumweight title, controlled the first round with jabs a couple of combinations. There was little action to speak of as both fighters moved around looking at each other cautiously.
In the 2nd round, Barrera, 24, began pressing the action, trying to land right hands and missing more often than not. Garcia moved constantly to his right, jabbing and landing left hands. Barrera was having little luck landing any of his shots and started resorting to holding Garcia with his left hand and hitting him with rights. The referee didn’t give any warnings for some reason even though it seemed pretty blatant to me.
Garcia continued landing well in the 3rd, picking off the slow moving Barrera with jabs and straight left hands to the head. Barrera, as in the previous round, continued to hold and hit periodically in the round without any warnings from the referee.
Late in the round, both fighters clashed heads but with no visible cuts occurring. At the end of the round, Garcia nailed Barrera with a nice right hand that stopped the Colombian’s forward progress.
In the 4th round, Barrera continued to walk into jabs and straight left hands from Garcia. Around midpoint of the round, Barrera’s right eye began to show signs of swelling underneath and it looked like it was going to be a problem if he continued to take shots much longer.
Barrera continued to hold and hit. I’m not sure why he was doing this under than the fact that he was missing most of his shots and this was perhaps the only way he could land without worrying about missing. Perhaps tiring of the holding and hitting that was being done, Garcia nailed Barrera with a left hand low. Barrera then had to walk it off while Garcia received a warning from the referee.
The 5th round was all Garcia, who was now essentially hitting Barrera at will with shots to the head. Near the end of the round, Garcia landed a big left hand that sent Barrera flying backwards several steps before he could stop his backwards motion. It wasn’t that Garcia was all that big of a puncher, but rather that Barrera was walking straight into most of Garcia’s punches and was making it easy for him to land.
In the 6th round, Barrera opened it up with a nice right hand while holding onto the back of Garcia’s head with his left hand. Garcia then nailed Barrera with two left hands to the head which seemed to open up a bad cut under Barrera’s right eye. The referee then stopped the action and took Barrera over to the ringside doctor to examine the cut.
The doctor allowed the fight to continue, and as soon as the action resumed, Garcia viciously attacked Barrera with left hands. For the next 30 seconds, Garcia nailed Barrera with a storm of left hands without anything being thrown back. Finally, the referee Rafael Ramos, seeing that Barrera was just getting beaten up senselessly, stepped in and put a stop to the fight at 2:26 of the round.