Mikey Garcia knocked out Rocky Martinez at 56 seconds of the eighth round with a crushing left-hand body shot to win Martinez’s WBO super featherweight title Saturday night in Corpus Christi, Texas.
After landing a hard left to the head, Garcia (33-0, 28 KOs) caught Martineaz with a hard liver shot that Martinez on the canvas and unable to get up.
Garcia, 25, had lost his featherweight title on the scales in June before his fight with Juan Manuel Lopez before he stopped Lopez in the fourth round.
Martinez (27-2-2, 16 KOs), from Puerto Rico, knocked Garcia down for the first time in his career with a flash knockdown in the second round. Garcia said it didn’t hurt him.
“I just got caught. It happens in boxing,” Garcia said. “He caught me on the chin. I was fine.”
On his fight-ending punch, Garcia said, “He was hurt from that one to the liver, and a little staggered from the punch up in the head as well.”
Garcia connected on 113 of 297 punches (38%), while Martinez landed only 14% of his punches, most being blocked by the technically skilled Garcia.
Garcia said he would be willing to go up to 135 pounds to fight Yuriorkis Gamboa at lightweight, but said Gamboa doesn’t want to fight him. He said he’s willing to take on anyone.
Donaire scored TKO win: Nonito Donaire, coming back from his first loss in a dozen years, struggled through eight rounds before stopping Vic Darchinyan in the ninth in their rematch to get back on the winning track.
Donaire, behind on two judges’ scorecards in a rematch six years in the making, dropped Darchinyan with a powerful left hook in the ninth round of their 10-round fight. Darchinyan, on wobbly legs, was never able to regain his footing and balance.
A minute or so later, Donaire got Darchinyan against the ropes and poured it on before referee Laurence Cole stopped it at 2:06 of the round.
Until that final round, Donaire did not look like the power-punching Donaire before being beaten by Guillermo Rigondeaux in April. In fact, Darchinyan led on two judges’ scorecards 78-74. But Donaire (32-2, 21 KOs), realizing he needed something big, went for it in the ninth. And found it.
“I was trying to work on a different style. They kept telling me to box, box, but I wanted to fight,” Donaire said. “When he hit me in my cheek, I thought he broke my cheek. Part of my mind was saying, ‘Is this it for me, is this it for me? I’m losing the fight, should I keep going?’ But I put my heart in to it and said I’ll never, never quit.”
Donaire said after the fight he wants a rematch with Rigondeaux.
Andrade wins: Demetrius Andrade took home the WBO junior middleweight title with a split decision victory against Vanes Martirosyan.
