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By David A. Avila
A near-death experience couldn’t derail Errol Spence Jr. and neither could Danny “Swift” Garcia as the WBC and IBF welterweight champion shook off 15 months of rust and steamrolled to a unanimous decision victory on Saturday.
“Danny pushed me to the limit,” said Spence. “Danny showed up.”
Spence (27-0, 21 KOs) returned after a violent car crash more than a year ago and jabbed his way to victory over Philadelphia’s former champion Garcia (36-3, 21 KOs) before more than 11,000 fans at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
It was a homecoming for Spence who lives in the area and also an opportunity to show he was indeed back to full strength.
Behind a steady long jab and a stream of combination punching Spence jumped ahead of the counter-punching Garcia from the get-go. He also weathered some early heavy shots to the body and gave just as many shots back to the Philly fighter.
Those southpaw jabs were hard to get around for Garcia.
“I think that was the key to this fight tonight, his jab. It was the difference in this fight,” said Garcia.
Though Garcia was able to connect with counter roundhouse rights, they never were able to slow down the constant attack from Spence. Each round was similar to the next for the first half of the fight.
But in the second half, Spence was able to increase the barrage of jabs and combinations. Garcia tried to adjust and found some success but never enough to mount a serious rally.
During the 10th and 11th rounds Spence seemed to slow down and Garcia was able to land some thudding blows.
“I’m human I made a couple of mistakes putting my hands down,” said Spence who was admonished by his trainer for the lack of focus. “Danny Garcia is known for knocking off guys that are playing around.”
In the final round Spence returned to full focus and used feints and jabs to keep Garcia from landing a big blow. Though Garcia stayed in the pocket he was never able to connect with a knockout blow. Spence was in full control.
After 12 rounds all three judges scored in favor of Spence 116-112 twice and 117-111 who retains the WBC and IBF welterweight world titles.
“This moment is surreal because of my accident,” said Spence after the fight. “I had to shake out a lot of cobwebs. This was a comeback fight for me.”
Garcia didn’t doubt he had lost.
“He was just a better man tonight,” said Garcia. “I fought a hard, tough fight.”
Neither fighter was seriously hurt, but after 12 hard fought rounds it was clear that Spence’s health has returned to full force.
“I told people I didn’t want a tune-up fight, I wanted a champion like Danny Garcia,” Spence said.
Now, the road is open for possible welterweight unification fights with WBA titlist Manny Pacquiao or WBO titlist Terence Crawford who was among those in attendance. But will it happen?
Josesito
Once again Riverside’s Josesito Lopez (38-8, 21 KOs) proved he’s a renewed fighter with a dominant late knockout victory over super tough Francisco Santana (25-9-1, 12 KOs) in a welterweight clash.
Not Jarret Hurd, not Jermell Charlo, not Jose Benavidez Jr. were able to knock out the super resilient Santana. But once again Lopez displayed an uncanny ability to hurt seemingly unhurtable fighters with his power.
He did it again.
In the opening round Lopez opened up with savage body shots and a right cross the floored Santana early. But when he went for a finishing blow, Lopez ran into a left hook from Santana that forced the Riverside fighter to change tactics.
Lopez used a busy jab from the outside to bang away at Santana’s peek-a-boo defense and target the body. It was a tactic he used round after round. In the ninth round Lopez used the tactic to perfection and floored Santana. Though he beat the count he was nearly dropped again and wobbled back to his corner at the end of the round. The fight continued.
In the 10th and final round Lopez floored the nearly defenseless Santana twice and the referee finally stopped the fight at 1:22 of the round. It was nearly too late.
“I knew he’s one of the toughest fighters not holding a belt,” said Lopez about Santana. “I was a little patient, but he’s a crafty fighter and he can take some good punches.”
Lopez feels he is enjoying a renaissance of sort.
“I stopped a guy who has never been stopped before. I want a world title,” he said.
Fundora
Super tall super welterweight Sebastian Fundora (16-0-1, 11 KOs) needed only two rounds to stop Habib Ahmed (27-2-1, 18 KOs) to win by technical knockout.
Fundora, who stands six-feet, six-inches tall, immediately utilized his extra-long reach to connect with a left uppercut and seemingly paralyze Ahmed. There was seldom any return fire from the shorter boxer from Ghana.
A barrage of 20 unanswered blows forced referee Laurence Cole to halt the fight at 1:30 of round two. Ahmed’s only previous loss was to WBO super middleweight titlist Gilberto Ramirez two years ago in the sixth round.
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In a featherweight bout Mexico’s Eduardo Ramirez (24-2-3, 11 KOs) knocked out Miguel Flores (24-4) in 20 seconds of the fifth round.
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