By Tom Donelson (BWAA)
Author, Member Boxing Writers Association of America
Mikey Garcia dominated Adrien Broner last Saturday night with a technically sound performance. Broner is the colorful fighter with the flashing combinations but it is Garcia who simply wins by being workmanlike. From the beginning and throughout the fight, Garcia jabbed his way inside Broner and then landed body shots that scored. From the very beginning, Garcia outworked and out hustled Broner.
Broner had his moment like the eighth round when he started with succession of combinations and over the last three rounds, he landed some big shots but he never landed with any consistency whereas Garcia would simply throw and land punches and as Garcia noted after fight, “I think that I controlled the fight in this early rounds and I kept the activity up … Broner is a great fighter and he has great skills but I was the superior fighter tonight.”
The second round was an example of the fight as using sound technique, Garcia forced Broner to the rope and a series of body shots put Broner in jeopardy but Broner survived the round on his feet. In the third round, a massive left hook forced Broner to retreat and throughout the first seven rounds, Garcia body shots kept Broner from establishing his own attack.
I had the fight 118-110 but others at ringside had this even wider and the judges had it 116-112,116-112, 117-111 but no one could dispute who won the fight.
Garcia made it clear that he is ready to go up to welterweight, stay at Super Lightweight or go back to lightweight. Garcia did not lose speed at 140 pounds that he had at 135 pounds. There are some potential match ups for Garcia like the winner of the Terence Crawford-Julius Indongo, with Welterweight such a Keith Thurman and Errol Spence or a Vasyl Lomachenko at lightweight. As for Broner, this was his first loss at 140 pound and his previous losses happened with he moved up but the question now for Broner is how many big money fights left for Broner to headline?
On Sunday, July 30, 2017 – Victor Ortiz has not fought in fifteen months since his loss to Andre Berto and for his comeback fight, he fought Saul Corral. Ortiz started out fast and nailed Corral with straight lefts and nasty hooks while Corral countered with uppercuts but he got the short end of the exchanges. Corral lost points to excessive holding, the holding design to stop the Ortiz’s onslaught.
Ortiz left hand sent Corral down halfway through the fourth but Corral managed to get up barely before Ortiz finished one more volley after Corral got back up. Ortiz comeback proved successful and now the question that remains is where Ortiz go from here? Ortiz was once the Welterweight champion six years ago but now it is crowded field on the top with some great fighters and Ortiz may not be up to their quality