After successfully knocking out 13 of his first 14 opponents, Ryan Garcia has stepped up his level of competition and his last win gave Garcia some much needed experience.
In the main event of Golden Boy Promotions? second card shown exclusively on Facebook Watch, Garcia went the distance against fellow contender Carlos Morales. Garcia eventually won the fight by majority decision (98-92, 95-95, 98-92), improving his record to 16-0.
The win did not come easy for Garcia, however. Garcia dominated the first half of the fight, but Morales did get some clean shots in every so often. Morales hurt Garcia in the seventh round with a jab that seemed to hurt Garcia and Morales followed it up by scoring big left hooks in the last few rounds of the fight.
Even though Garcia had been hoping the last few rounds would finish quickly, evidenced by Garcia repeatedly looking at the clock late in the fight, he was still willing to trade blows with Morales, who had just lost twice in his career prior to fighting Garcia. In the end, Garcia not only did enough to win in the scorecards, but also win comfortably on two of the three scorecards. Even with 98-92 scores on two of the three judges? scorecards, Garcia said after the fight that he felt the fight was actually much closer than the final result seemed to indicate.
The win over Morales will most likely catapult the 20-year-old Garcia in the top 5 in the WBA super featherweight rankings, where Gervonta Davis and Alberto Machado are the ?super? and ?regular? champions, respectively. When asked about Davis and whether or not he is is ready to challenge for Davis? title, Garcia simply responded by saying that youth is on his side and that when given enough time, he would ready to face anybody.
Garcia has been fighting tougher opponents as of late. After knocking out former title challenger Fernando Vargas back in March, Garcia fought 10 rounds against Jayson Velez winning a unanimous decision, but the win over Morales was the closest win of Garcia?s young career.