By: Sean Crose
Lightweight Ryan Garcia returned to the ring Saturday night when the popular 22-0 contender took on the veteran 37-3-1 Javier Fortuna. The fight was scheduled for 12 rounds and was aired live as the main event of a Golden Boy card on DAZN. Garcia started right off by zipping out his jab and the occasional straight right in the first. The second round was close, but Garcia appeared to be the sharper of the two fighters. Aside from a few brief moments, Garcia and his jab controlled the third.
Garcia turned up the heat and started truly banging on his man in the fourth, dripping Fortuna with a gut shot. Fortuna was able to continue on, but Garcia was clearly having his way. A thudding shot crumbled Fortuna in the corner in the fifth. The game veteran got up quickly, but the round belonged to Garcia. A nasty one-two put Fortuna down a third time in the sixth. This time Fortuna didn’t get up. “He hit hard,” Garcia said after the fight (and after thanking the Almighty). “He had a hard fist.” As for the future, Garcia made it clear he doesn’t want to fight at lightweight again…though there’s one man he’d like to get in the ring with. “I will take Tank (Davis) next,” he said. “If he wants it, let’s get it.”
There was reason to think beforehand that perhaps Garcia was looking past Fortuna. Now that he’s easily bested the man, there’s no doubt that a Garcia-Davis fight is a mouth watering possibility for fans. Like Garcia, Davis is a crisp, thunderous puncher. There’s really nothing to truly dislike about the possibility of the two men meeting in the ring in the near future. The problem, of course, is that Garcia is a Golden Boy fighter while Davis fights under the banner of Premier Boxing Champions, a Golden Boy competitor. Should the fight be made, however, it would no doubt generate a great deal of interest.
Earlier in the evening, the 19-1 welterweight Alexis Rocha beat the 19-3-2 Luis Vernon by unanimous decision. Meanwhile the 22-1-1 Lamont Roach Jr won his junior welterweight battle against the 20-1 Angel Rodriguez via unanimous decision, and the 11-0 flyweight David Jimenez bested the 20-1 Ricardo Sandoval by majority decision.