In a strange yet predictable ending, Ryan Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) registered his 20th knockout with an eighth round stoppage of a very slow & limited looking Oscar Duarte (26-2-1, 21 KOs) in their fight the on Saturday night at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
Ryan dropped Duarte in the eighth round, and although the Mexican fighter appeared to beat the count by getting up at nine, the referee James Green, halted it. You can argue that the fight should have been allowed to continue, but the referee chose to stop the fight.
The referee did NOT look good at all. He was blatantly cheating by using an illegal straight arm, which was ignored by the referee, and turning his back on Duarte all night long. Instead of the referee warning the A-side fighter Ryan not to turn his back, he was giving Duarte for hitting him in the back. There are no words to describe how poor the referee and Ryan were. They were both horrible and entirely incompetent.
The live boxing results in tonight’s card on DAZN will be shown below.
Undefeated lightweight contender Floyd Schofield (17-0, 12 KOs) destroyed journeyman Ricardo Torres (17-8-3, 12 KOs), stopping him in the first round in the co-feature bout. The 21-year-old Schofield knocked Torres down four times before the referee chose to waive it off. The time the stoppage was 1:51. Torres never seemed to recover from the first knockdown when he was nailed by a left hook to the head. Given how much of a mismatch the fight was, it was difficult to tell how good Schofield was because this guy was completely out of his league.
Middleweight Shane Mosley Jr. (21-4, 12 KOs) picked up his fourth consecutive win with a sixth round stoppage victory over veteran Joshua Conley (17-6-1, 11 KOs). Although the lighter puncher of the two, the 32-year-old Mosley Jr. used his activity to take the fight out of Conley by outworking him and keeping the pressure on. In the sixth, Mosley Jr. nailed Conley with a nice right hand that seemed to take the fight out of him. After the sixth, Conley opted not to come out for the seventh. Conley landed a left hook to the head of Mosley Jr in the fourth round, which took well. Luckily for Mosley Jr., Conley didn’t throw many more of those because that punch was devastatingly powerful. “I’m feeling great. I’m happy with my performance tonight. I trained hard for this fight, and I knew I could get the job done,” said Mosley Jr. after the contest ended.
Unbeaten super middleweight prospect Darius Fulghum (9-0, 9 KOs) kept his unbeaten knockout record intact with a second round KO victory over the overmatched Pachino “Chino” Hill (8-5-1, 6 KOs). The 27-year-old Texas native Fulghum was hammering Hill in the second round, resulting in the fight being halted by the referee. The time of the stoppage was at 0:56 of round two. It’ll be interesting to see how Fulghum performs when he eventually gets put in against better opposition. A good fight for him would be against Diego Pacheco, as it would be a real firefight from start to finish.
Ryan Garcia takes his first step back to rebuilding his career by taking on Oscar Duarte tonight in the main event in Houston, Texas. Garcia (23-1, 19 KOs) needs an impressive win against Duarte to prove he belongs in the 140-lb division.
It’s not a good sign that Ryan came in at 143 lbs yesterday at the weigh-in, making some question whether he lacks the discipline to make weight for the 140-lb division.
Main DAZN card at 8:00 p.m. ET
– Ryan Garcia vs. Oscar Duarte
– Floyd Schofield vs. Ricardo Lopez
– Shane Mosley Jr vs. Joshua Conley
– Darius Fulghum vs. Pachino Hill
If Ryan can’t make the weight for the light welterweight division, he can forget about a rematch with Gervonta Davis because the Mayweather-promoted fighter isn’t going to come up to 147 to face him. Further, how long will Ryan last fighting at welterweight?
Unless he’s carefully matched, his career will be quickly over, regardless of who promotes him. Not even PBC could protect Ryan if he’s fighting at 147, having to slog through dangerous punchers like Roiman Villa, Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, and Giovani Santillan.
Ryan was blown out in seven rounds in his last fight against Gervonta Davis, and he’s had a lot of excuses, saying he was injured, ring rusty, and not committed the way he needed to be.
Kingry looked like he wasn’t the same person who had destroyed his previous opponent Javier Fortuna nine months earlier or the guy who had stopped 2012 Olympic gold medalist Luke Campbell.
Those excuses were believable, but Ryan can’t continue to do that, especially tonight against this level of opponent. If the 25-year-old Ryan struggles to beat Duarte (26-1-1, 21 KOs) or if he loses, it won’t help him if he goes into damage control mode afterward, saying he had an undisclosed injury or wasn’t there mentally for the fight.
Does Ryan Garcia prove anything by beating Oscar Duarte?
“He’s never shown himself to be fully committed to boxing the way he needs to be,” said Paulie Malignaggi to ProBox TV, talking about Ryan Garcia. “He’s fully committed to the business of boxing, but I don’t know if he’s fully committed to his boxing career. So, we’ll see.”
The way that Ryan brags about the $30 million that he made from his fight with Gervonta it makes you wonder whether his focus in the sport is misplaced.
Also, the urgency that he’s showing to push for a rematch with Tank Davis, without redeeming himself is a red flag that he’s not committed to boxing for sports purposes. Ryan is only 25, yet his focus seems to be 100% on making money and less on trying to build a legacy by taking on the killers at 140.
“We’re not going to really know against Oscar Duarte because against this guy, what is that really proving?” said Malignaggi. Y”ou’re still not going to get an answer on Saturday. The only answer you’re going to get is if he [Ryan Garcia] gets beat or winds up in a really tough fight.
Beating Duarte doesn’t prove Ryan can swim with sharks
“If he wins and wins spectacularly, there’s absolutely nothing for him,” said Malignaggi. “It’s just, ‘Okay, Ryan got a win after losing to Gervonta Davis against the level of opponent that we’ve already seen and know that he’s better than because we’ve seen him beat that level of opponent already.'”
Unfortunately, Ryan’s choice of opponent, or should I say, his coach Derrick James’ choice, puts him in a no-win situation tonight, considering that few people are familiar with Duarte, and he’s clearly not ranked high in the 135-lb division.
If Ryan wanted to prove something, they should have insisted on Golden Boy matching him against one of these fighters:
- Arnold Barboza Jr.
- William Zepeda
- Gary Antuanne Russell
“So, even if he’s saying all these things, I think it’s just him getting things off his chest,” said Malignaggi about Ryan Garcia airing his dirty laundry about his issues with the top brass at Golden Boy Promotions, Bernard Hopkins & Oscar De La Hoya.