DANNY GARCIA
After cruising past Redkach, Garcia needs a big-name opponent next
‘Swift’ targets the biggest names at 147lbs after dominating Ivan Redkach
DANNY GARCIA may lay claim to being one of the top welterweights in boxing today, but he has struggled nonetheless to stay relevant. He hardly improved his standing at the Barclays Center, where he battered the woefully outmatched Ukrainian Ivan Redkach over 12 monotonous rounds. Vast segments of the crowd, a pro-garcia contingent that totalled an announced 8,217, began beating a path for exits during the break heading into the final round in what seemed to be a fitting coda to a night of drab proceedings.
With scorecards of 118-110 (Tony Paolillo) and 117-111 twice (Glenn Feldman and Don Trella), the Philadelphian raced away to a relatively painless unanimous points win. At one point late in the bout, Garcia appeared to be on the verge of a knockout, but the knockout, all too appropriately, never came.
“I thought the referee [Benjy Esteves Jnr] was going to stop it,” Garcia said postfight. “I felt like I was punishing him, but he’s a tough guy. He hung in there. 0I wanted to get the KO. I didn’t get it. But I felt like I boxed smart till the end. And I got the rounds in. I felt that’s what I needed after a nine-month layoff. Even though I really wanted the knockout bad, I’ll accept this.” The southpaw Redkach, who was coming off a career-best knockout win over Devon Alexander last year, had no answer for Garcia’s elite counterpunching ability. Anytime Redkach threw a punch, Garcia was right there with a stinging riposte of sorts. Compounding the marked