Last night at the Reliant Arena in Houston, Texas, 24-year old Danny Garcia produced the biggest win of his career in capturing a twelve-round unanimous decision over former champion Erik ?El Terrible? Morales. Scores reading 118-109, 117-110, and 116-112 were all in the Philadelphian?s favor as Garcia sees his record rise to 23-0 with 14 knockouts while lifting the WBC junior welterweight crown that Morales had captured last September.
The early rounds of the fight were nip and tuck but Garcia seized command midway through the bout and put an exclamation point on his performance with an eleventh round knockdown that had Morales visibly shaken. Certainly a downer for Morales, who was stripped of the WBC title at yesterday?s weigh-in after coming in two pounds over the junior welterweight limit of 140 pounds.
While Garcia?s future looks pretty bright, this may be the end of the road for Morales, one of this generation?s great warriors.
For images from the Morales-Garcia scrap, as well as the controversy surrounding the HBO-televised undercard bout between James Kirkland and Carlos Molina, please visit the slideshow on the left or check out Garcia triumphant; the end of the line for Erik Morales?
