Madison Square Garden, New York City – Lightweight prospect Ryan Garcia (17-0, 14 KOs) knocked out Braulio Rodriguez (19-4, 17 KOs) in the fifth round.
This was Garcia’s first fight with new trainer Eddy Reynoso, who is best known as the head trainer for WBC, WBA middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.
Rodriguez was coming back from back to back defeats. He lost a split decision to Alberto Mercado in September 2016. He was inactive until March of this year, when he was knocked out by Christopher Diaz in four rounds. Both of those fights took place at super featherweight.
Garcia returns from a majority decision win over Carlos Morales in September – where Garcia did not look very impressive and was hurt during the fight.
In the first round, it started slow but Garcia dropped Rodriguez with a big hook that sent him crashing down. Rodriguez barely beat the count and then did everything possible to survive until the first bell.
Rodriguez was sticking and moving in the second round. Garcia was applying a lot of pressure, landing well and outworking Rodriguez.
There was point taken from Rodriguez for a low blow in the third.
In the fifth round, Garcia unleashed a variety of punches that sent Rodriguez down on his back. Rodriguez was unable to beat the count and the fight was waved off.
