GARCIA CRUSHES RIOS IN ONE PUNCH KO

GARCIA CRUSHES RIOS IN ONE PUNCH KO

LAS VEGAS (FEB. 17, 2018)- Danny Garcia returned from an 11 month layoff, brutally stopping aged warrior Brandon Rios in a potential knockout of the year. The WBC title eliminator headlined the first major card in Showtime’s 2018 scheduled, delivering expected results.

Since losing his WBC title 11 months ago to Keith Thurman, Garcia looked to remind the boxing die-hard’s he is still a force in the division. Brandon Rios’s resurrection of a career potentially lost to a personal life and bad-habits outside of the ring. Both may have accomplished their goals before the definitive ending.

Using lateral movement and a down-up jab, Garcia setup shots that couldn’t miss on the forward plodding Rios. Garcia landed big right hands at will while Rios slowly began to push Garcia to the ropes mauling him on the inside with uppercuts and firing looping shots over the top of Garcia’s guard. Heating up in the fifth, sixth, and seventh rounds Rios started to make the argument that he wasn’t done competing against top opposition, bullying Garcia to ropes and landing effective shots to throw off the Philly fighters timing.

The center of the ring showed Garcia’s best work of the night and in the ninth round Garcia planted a right hook to the chin of Rios, sending him down like a sack of bricks. Rios barely beat the count but was dazed and wobbly on his feet prompting referee Kenny Bayless to call an appropriate halt to the fight.

After the fight Garcia said “I felt the ring rust a little bit in the beginning,” said Garcia, who recorded the 20th knockout of his career.  “He’s a good inside fighter and he was giving me some good uppercuts.  I felt good, it was a good nine rounds.  He came to fight.  I came to box, I did that.  I came to bang, and I gave the fans what they wanted – a knockout.”