World Boxing Association featherweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (16-0, 14 KO’s) defeated number #13 ranked WBA contender Whyber Garcia (22-7, 15 KO’s) by a 4th round stoppage on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden, in New York, New York. Gamboa, 27, knocked Garcia down in the 4th round with a left-right combination that sent the 28-year-old Garcia down face first on the canvas.

He made it back to his feet and was immediately driven back to the ropes by a series of straight lefts from Gamboa. Garcia then tried to cover while Gamboa unloaded on him with a flurry of shots, leading to referee Steve Smoger stepping in and stopping the fight.

Gamboa fought cautiously in the opening round, staying away from Garcia for the most part as if he were a threat to land one of his big right hand bombs. However, late in the 1st round, Gamboa went after him and landed a six punch combination as the round ended.

The punches caused swelling under Garcia’s right eye. For his part, Garcia did little in the 1st round, limited to landing several meaningless right hands to the head. He should have attempted a little more, because Gamboa has a history of being hurt and knocked down early in his fights. Garcia could have gotten lucky and scored a quick knock down.

In the 2nd round, Gamboa landed pinpoint shots, throwing one big punch at a time at Garcia and hitting him with great accuracy. Garcia, again, did very little in the round and only landed four punches. He looked scared of Gamboa and was treating him like a hand grenade, as if he were to go off at any second.

The third round was basically a repeat of the 2nd, with Gamboa landing hard single punches to the head and staying on the outside in between shots. Garcia only landed a small handful of punches in the round and only attempted a small amount.

In the 4th, Gamboa came out really fast charging across the ring and landed two lefts and then a 1-2 combination that Garcia down face first on the canvas. Garcia stayed flat on the canvas for several seconds before getting up. I surprised that the referee didn’t stop it immediately Garcia looked badly hurt. However, the fight was allowed to continue.

After Garcia got up, he was snowed under by punches from Gamboa. It was like a pheasant shoot. Garcia stood a chance and just stood against the ropes covering up while Gamboa riddled him to pieces with machinegun like punches until referee Steve Smoger moved in and halted the bout at 0:58 of the round.

With this win, Gamboa will be defending his WBA title against top contender Bernabe Concepcion. This should be an interesting fight. Conception was disqualified recently when he hit World Boxing Organization featherweight champion Steve Luevano after the bell in the 7th round, knocking him out in August of this year. Conception is a good fighter but he’s going to be in way over his head against Gamboa.