LAS VEGAS — Rising middleweight star Elijah Garcia defeated Armando Resendiz in the pay-per-view opener after a thrilling firefight that lasted eight rounds at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“It was a really hard fight,” said the 20-year-old Garcia(16-0) in media reports. “Reséndiz is good people. He was really tough. I wish him the best. This was 100 percent my toughest fight so far. I left everything I could in the ring.”
The second round saw both fighters unleash big blows as the battle heated up. Reséndiz(14-2) appeared to knock Garcia down midway through the round with a string of unanswered right hands, but Garcia rallied and added several power blows of his own to finish the round.
Through the first few rounds, the fight was close, but Garcia changed his movement pattern in round five to avoid squaring up to a Reséndiz who was circling. Garcia had plenty of room to hit strong left hands as a result, which helped his excellent 46% power punch contact rate.
“I countered to the body and came up to the head,” said Garcia in media reports. “I hadn’t doubled up on my hook. I saw that he was hurt. I do what I do. I finished. I knew he was hurt on the ropes. I was hitting him with some really hard punches. He was really tough, but I finished him off.”
“Besides listening more to my corner, I would like to redeem myself and give it my all once again soon,” said Reséndiz in media reports. “I would like to apologize to my fans, but I promise I’ll come back stronger.”
“I want to be a mandatory for a title pretty soon,” said Garcia in media reports. “I’ll be 21 in April and I’m gonna keep taking it one step at a time. I learned a lot in this fight. I still let him control the fight too much.”
Edited by Judy J. Rotich and Newsdesk Manager
