Undefeated lightweight contender Ryan Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs) knocked out Francisco Fonseca (25-3-2, 19 KOs) with a one-punch left hook KO in round 1 on Friday night on Valentine’s Day on DAZN at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Referree Raul Caíz Sr. stopped the fight at 1:20 of round one after Garcia knocked him down with a left to the head.
Garcia, 21, caught the Nicaraguan Fonseca with a perfectly timed left hook to the head that knocked him flat on his back. The fight was halted almost immediately the referee when he saw how hurt Fonseca was.
Before the knockout, Garcia had been looking to land his left hook on the button. He landed it earlier in the round and it was clear that it got Fonseca’s attention. Rather than being cautious of Ryan’s left hook, Fonseca stepped forward and was caught with a big left and dropped.
Jorge Linares smashes Carlos Morales
Showing off his amazing hand speed, Jorge Linares (47-5, 29 KOs) had too much talent for Carlos Morales (19-5-4, 8 KOs) in defeating him in a 4th round KO in the co-feature bout on Friday’s card. Linares put Morales, 27, down with a short right hand in round 3.
Morales looked like he never fully recovered from the shot in between rounds. Moments after the start of the 4th, Linares stunned Morales with another big right to the head. Although Morales stayed on his feet, he was badly hurt, and his legs looked they were gone.
Linares then backed Morales up against the ropes, and landed another big right hand that send him down on the canvas. The referee gave Morales the count and he wasn’t able to get up in time before it was waived off. It was a good thing that Morales didn’t get up in time to beat the count, because Linares would have dropped him again.
Linares was cut over his left eye from a head-butt in round 1. Morales fought well in the first and second rounds, as he landed some big uppercuts that got Linares’ attention.
If Morales had a little more power, Linares would have been in trouble. The form that Morales used on his uppercuts was perfect. He threw the shots in a textbook fashion. What was missing was the power. It almost didn’t matter though. Morales threw his uppercuts in such a precise manner that Linares looked briefly stunned each time he landed them.
Linares took control over the fight in the third when he caught Morales with a right hand that caused him to fall into him. Jorge than pushes Morales off of hm, and he fell down.
At first, it looked like Linares had thrown Morales to the canvas. But in watching a replay, Morales was clearly hit with a big right hand from Linares that caused him to fall into him. Linares knew that Morales on his way down, so he shoved him off of him so that he wouldn’t use him to stay on his feet.
A crushing Linares right hand in round four is what finally did it as he sent Morales to the canvas again. Referee Thomas Taylor counted Morales out at 2:0
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Alejandro Reyes UD 4 Nelson Colon
Bektemir Melikuiziev TKO 1 Marco Antonio Periban
Evan Sanchez TKO 2 Daniel Evangelista
Tenochtitlan Nava UD 6 Anthony Casillas
