WBC champion Danny Garcia added the WBA light-welterweight belt to his collection with a stunning fourth-round upset of Britain’s Amir Khan in a unification title fight in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday.
American Garcia scored three knockdowns with the end coming with 32 seconds left in the fourth round when referee Kenny Bayless stopped the bout.
“I have always been overlooked, maybe it is the green eyes and the light skin,” Garcia said. “I look like a pretty boy, but I am a chiller baby and I will fight anybody, anywhere, anyplace.”
Photo: AFP
Garcia, who already had the WBC title, now has 24 wins and no losses. Garcia, of Philadelphia, kept his perfect record intact by surviving the first two rounds before using a devastating left hook late in the third round that caught Khan flush on the right ear.
Garcia said he even surprised himself a little bit with the shot that changed the fight, but it was one he worked on with his sparring partners during training camp.
“I knew he was coming in so I slipped down and set up my left hook and just fired it,” Garcia said. “That is the same hook I hit [Erik] Morales with. We practiced that in camp.”
“I feel great. I always knew I had it in me. I just needed the right fighter in front of me. I feel like the great fighters bring the best out of me and Amir Khan is a great fighter,” he said.
Garcia, 24, was coming off a 12-round unanimous decision over Morales four months ago.
Khan, of Great Britain, suffered just the third loss of his career.
He managed to get up from the third-round knockdown and barely finished the round, but he never fully recovered from that devastating left hook to the side of the head.
“He caught me with a shot,” Khan said. “It was more of a blind shot, but I have always said: ‘One punch can change a fight.’”
Khan (26-3, 18 KOs) got knocked down twice more in the fourth round, which had turned into a slugfest, with both fighters trading heavy shots in the center of the ring.
The second knockdown came when Garcia’s punch glanced off the top of Khan’s head, leading to an eight-count.
Garcia (24-0, 15 KOs) got the better of the exchanges in the fourth, hitting Khan consistently with left hooks and counter shots, then finishing him off with a straight right hand that sent Khan stumbling across the ring.
When Bayless stepped in to stop the fight, the 25-year-old Khan protested and tried to duck under the referee’s arm.
Khan is now the biggest trophy on Garcia’s unblemished record and this win could signal a jump for the American into the welterweight division, where such stars as unbeaten Floyd Mayweather and Philippine icon Manny Pacquiao await him.
“I want to fight the best. Whoever is out there,” Garcia said.
HAYE V CHISORA
AP, LONDON
David Haye knocked out Dereck Chisora in the fifth round of their all-British heavyweight grudge fight at Upton Park on Saturday.
Five months after they brawled in Munich at a news conference, Haye put Chisora down for good with a left hook, but Haye (26-2, 24 KOs) was coming under severe pressure until the knockout.
The fight panned out as expected. Former world cruiserweight and heavyweight champion Haye had speed and a harder punch, while Chisora (15-4, 9 KOs) used his extra 17kg to crowd Haye and land threatening blows.
They continued hitting after the bell in the second and third rounds, and Chisora avoided trouble in the fourth when Haye let up. In the decisive round, Chisora survived an eight-count, but another Haye left hook dropped Chisora and referee Luis Pabon waved it all over.
No world titles were at stake in the scheduled 10-rounder, which was sanctioned by the Luxembourg Boxing Federation because the British Boxing Board of Control (BBBC) would not license either fighter after their shameful antics in Munich.
The pair traded insults and blows after Chisora lost to WBC champion Vitali Klitschko on Feb. 19 and then taunted Haye during the post-match news conference over the loss of his world title.
The BBBC stripped Chisora of his license after the incident. Haye relinquished his license last year when he retired following the loss of his WBA title to Wladimir Klitschko, Vitali’s brother.
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