Mikey Garcia had to climb off the canvas and come back to score an 8th round stoppage over Roman Martinez and win the WBO Jr. Lightweight championship at the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Garcia boxed very well for most of the fight the exception of a brief moment in round 2 when he was caught with a sneaky right hand that sent him to the canvas. That advantage was short lived for Martinez as Garcia started finding a range with his power shots. In round six, a left hook wobbled Martinez. Garcia finished the round landing a nice right hand and a body shot. Garcia continued landing good shots and in round eight he landed a perfect left to the body that sent Martinez down on all fours. he was unable to beat the count and the fight was over at 56 seconds of round eight.
Garcia of Oxnard, CA is now 33-0 with 28 knockouts. Martinez of Puerto Rico is now 27-2-2.
Nonito Donaire made it two for two against Vic Darchinyan as the Filipino Flash had to come from behind to score a ninth round stoppage in their Featherweight bout.
Both guys landed hard shots for the first eight rounds with Darchinyan landing more often and even rocking Donaire, the heavy favorite several times. Finally in round nine, Donaire dropped Darchinyan with a huge left hook. Donaire went in and landed a huge flurry of punches and the fight was stopped at 2:06 of the ninth round. Donaire was down 78-74 on two cards while a 3rd card was even at 76-76.
Donaire is now 32-2 with 21 knockouts. Darchinyan falls to 39-6-1.
Demetrius Andrade won the WBO jr. middleweight championship with a workmanlike split decision over 2004 U.S. Olympian and previously undefeated Vanes Martirosyan.
Andrade of Providence, Rhode Island, is now 20-0 with 13 knockouts and is promoted by Arthur Pelullo’s Banner Promotions and Joe DeGuardia’s Star Boxing.
Andrade proved early that he had the heart of a champion as he came back from a flash first -round knockdown.
Andrade got off the deck and dominated the rest of the bout as he stuck his hard right jab consistently in
Martirosyan’s face.
Andrade’s best round was the sixth when he hit Martirosyan with repeated power shots that raised swelling around his left eye.
Andrade was never challenged down the stretch as he put on a beautiful boxing exhibition that Martirosyan had no answer for.
According to Compubox Andrade landed 219 of 769 while Martirosyan only managed 83 of 443.
Two judges had Andrade winning by scores of 117-110 and 114-113, While a third judge turned in a dubious card that had Martirosyan ahead 115-112.
“He caught me but I stayed focused,” said Andrade about the knockdown. “I stayed focused and continued to jab and started to pick him apart. I started to feel comfortable inside and won the fight.”
On becoming a world champion, “This feels great and my time is now.”
Said co-promoter Arthur Pelullo, “This is what we envisioned when we signed him. That was to become world champion and he did that tonight. We feel that he is on track to become the best jr. middleweight in the world. Winning this belt puts him in the mix to be able to prove that.”
