by James Slater at Rinsgide in Cancun – Tonight, in beautiful Cancun, Mexico, unbeaten welterweight prospect Danny Garcia of Philly went to 18-0(12) by halting tough Jorge Romero of Culiacan, Mexico. The 22-year-old Golden Boy hope dropped the two-years-younger man with a bilstering left hook to the head in the 9th, and surely felt the fight was over with. It practically was. The brave Romero, now 17-3(15) somehow beat the count, however, and held on for a few more seconds. A series of hard rights to the head prompted the third man in the ring to call a halt to the action; amidst cries of defiance from the largely pro-Romero crowd.
Romero, who had only been halted once previously (with a broken jaw serving to stop him) protested the ref’s decision, but he was a beaten man. Both men drew praise from the crowd as well as from each other, and both guys earned their wages and then some tonight. Though Garcia, the far more accomplished and gifted boxer of the two, was way ahead on the scorecards after eight-rounds, it was no picnic for him in there – at all. Sporting a badly swollen right eye after the 6th and 7th-rounds, Garcia perhaps knew he had to get the finish, and he did so in quite dramatic fashion.
Garcia remains one of the brightest prospects in all of boxing, and tonight he looked both skilfull and very exciting. Guilty of throwing some wild, off-target right hands, the 22-year-old also showed patience, a nice, tight guard and, most importantly, a sharp and crisp left hand. Thrown as both a jab and a hook, Garcia’s left was a potent weapon. The holder of the WBC Junior title at 147 pounds may need some time off, so as to let his swollen eye heal, but he should get in a further fight or two this year.
Still one of boxing’s best current bets when it comes to winning a major title in the coming months, Garcia is also developing into a genuine value-for-money operator. Some fans felt he struggled too greatly three fights ago, when he won a hard fought decision over the U.K’s Ashley Theoplane, and maybe he did. However, in his Mexican debut, against one tough Mexican hombre, Garcia turned in a performance that turned heads. Not least Jorge Romero’s!
On the undercrad, unbeaten light-heavyweight hope Marco Antonio Peban had a relatively easy night’s work, as he halted Argentina’s game but outclassed Sanchez via a 2nd-round TKO. The promising Mexican and would-be star of the future decked his man three times in all, finally getting the win after the visiting warrior’s corner threw in the towel. Peban is definitely one to watch.