Ryan Garcia (24-1, 20 Kos) got his bounce-back win, stopping Oscar Duarte in the eighth round in a sluggish performance at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
In the eighth round, Ryan dropped Duarte with a right hand to the head. Duarte looked alert as he watched the referee, James Green, count and waited until the count of nine before rising to his feet. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in time for Duarte to beat the count. The match was stoppage at 2:51 of round eight.
In the condition that Duarte was in, Ryan would have finished him off right away because he likely wouldn’t have thrown anything back to prevent Kingry from going for the killer.
The 25-year-old Ryan fought defensively throughout the fight, clinching, turning his back to Duarte, and sticking his left arm out to keep his shorter opponent from getting in range.
Ryan was moving from the sixth round after getting hit with some choice shots to the bread basket by Duarte, whom his trainer Derrick James repeatedly picked out from a three-fighter list.
Duarte didn’t show much offense until the sixth, but part of the problem was these four tactics that Ryan used to stymie his ability to throw:
- Stiff arm -An illegal move that should have resulted in Ryan being given a warning, but it didn’t happen. This is a cheating tactic that is supposed to result in warnings, point deductions, and disqualifications, but the referee didn’t do anything to stop Ryan.
- Turning his back: This is a strange defensive tactic that Ryan used, as normally that would have caused the referee to tell him to stop, but not this referee. He warned Duarte for hitting Ryan when he would turn his back, and it was a sick comedy of incompetence.
- Clinching constantly
- Moving: Ryan looked very Shakur-esque with his running, and surprisingly the crowd didn’t boo him. They must have really loved Ryan because he looked terrible with his running.
Ryan’s left hook smash punch that he’d used to knock out many lightweights didn’t have much of an effect on Duarte, who took the shots well until the eighth round.
Duarte failed to let his hands go, even when Ryan was standing directly in front of him. It wasn’t just not throwing. Duarte’s accuracy was horrible, as he couldn’t hit Ryan when he was in point-blank range, and he did nothing to deal with all the clinching that he was using.
It’s not surprising that Ryan Garcia’s trainer, Derrick James, was the one that selected Duarte from a list of three because this guy was just awful and nowhere near good enough to beat anyone at 140 or 135.
At lightweight, Duarte is a fringe contender, which makes sense he can’t beat any of the top ten contenders at lightweight looking the way he did tonight.
“He did what he had to do, and that’s what you expect,” said Oscar De La Hoya to Fight Hub TV, sounding apologetic about Ryan Garcia’s sorry performance.
“Oscar was a tough guy, and I’m surprised that he picked him because Oscar is strong, but Ryan had to do what he had to do. He was using everything that he was working on in the gym. The distance, the jab, the right hand, boxing. I’m proud of him.”
It was hard for this writer not to laugh at De La Hoya gush about Ryan because he looked something awful tonight.
“I don’t know [who Ryan will fight next]. I haven’t even thought about it. We’ll have to go back to the drawing board. We’ll figure out a plan as his promoter for many years to come, and then we’ll go back to the drawing board,” said De La Hoya, using a term generally used for fighters who have lost their fights.
