GARCIA KNOCKS FONSECA COLD IN ONE!
Social media superstar and unbeaten lightweight Ryan Garcia ended the night early with a first round knockout of former world title challenger Francisco Fonseca on Friday night at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
Midway through the opening round, Garcia (20-0, 17 KO) caught Fonseca with a devastating counter left hook that rendered him unconscious and sent him to the canvas. With Fonseca on his back and completely motionless, referee Raul Caiz Sr. did not bother with an 8-count, awarding Garcia his fourth consecutive knockout victory.
Now that Garcia has gotten past Fonseca, he’ll most likely look forward to a fight with former three-division Jorge Linares—who also fought on Friday night’s card—later on in the year. However, it wasn’t Linares who stormed into the ring during Garcia’s post-fight interview.
WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney was sitting ringside and saw an opportunity to let Garcia and the rest of the spectators know that he wanted to defend his title against his former amateur rival. Although a fight between Haney and Garcia would be lucrative, it would most likely have to wait until Garcia gets through Linares first.
In the co-featured bout, Linares (46-5, 29 KO) stopped former Ryan Garcia foe Carlos Morales inside four rounds, scoring his second consecutive win after losing to Pablo Cesar Cano in early 2019.
The former champion began the fight by walking down his more inexperienced, smaller opponent. But it wasn’t until after the first two rounds (in which he sustained a cut over his left eye) that Linares started doing significant damage, as he caught Morales with a right hand in the third round, sending him to the canvas.
Morales beat the count and made it to his corner, but he was eventually knocked down again in the fourth. This time, however, he was unable to beat the ten-count.
Also on the card was unbeaten welterweight prospect Alexis Rocha, who won a surprisingly wide unanimous decision over veteran Brad Solomon. The official scores read 100-89, 99-90, 97-92, all in favor of Rocha.
The scorecards inaccurately reflected the tone of the fight though, as both men seemingly fought an evenly-contested battle throughout the majority of the ten rounds. If there was an edge for either guy, it was most likely the volume punching of Rocha, who out threw Solomon by over 200 punches.
In the tenth and final round, Rocha dropped Solomon and hurt him badly with a southpaw right hook. Solomon was able to recover and beat the count, but he was already in a significant points deficit on the judges’ scorecards going into the last round.
Rocha improves his record to 16-0, 10 KO with the win over Solomon.