Garcia dominates in KO victory
He easily puts away Granados in seven rounds as he climbs welterweight ladder.
Danny Garcia had everything to lose and very little to gain by fighting journeyman challenger Adrian Granados. If he put on a prominent performance, he simply was supposed to. If he lost a step in the ring — or, even worse, the fight — the 31-year-old would have further dropped down the rung of the stacked 147-division and lost his A-side appeal.
On Saturday, Garcia displayed the dominant performance he had promised throughout training camp by knocking down Granados three times en route to a seventh-round knockout at Dignity Health Sports Park.
“It feels great to make a statement. I did what no other fighter could do, and that’s to knock him out,” Garcia said. “I stopped him, but it didn’t feel easy. It was a challenge. He’s a tough cookie. I knew eventually if I put it on him, they would stop it.”
Garcia knocked down Granados twice in Round 2 and once in the fifth round and finished his night with a flurry of punches in the seventh. Referee Thomas Taylor had seen Granados take enough punishment and stopped the fight midway through the round.
Garcia landed an average of 23 of 69 punches per round, compared with 11 of 59 for Granados, according to the CompuBox punch-tracking system. He totaled 159 for the fight — 125 of them power punches. Granados connected with 79 total punches.
The former two-division champion, who improved to 35-2, 21 knockouts, came into the fight dropping two of his last three bouts in razor-thin decisions. Garcia’s urgency for stopping a losing stretch was as clear as day at the outdoor venue in which he was fighting in. A game Granados (21-6-2, 14 knockouts) attempted to play the spoiler, but his efforts ultimately fell short to a superior counterpart who outmuscled him throughout the fight.
“He was very sharp in the exchanges. That’s where he was catching me. I knew that’s what I had to avoid,” said Granados. “I had a plan to go the whole fight and they stopped me on my feet.”
Granados previously had dropped close decisions to Shawn Porter and Adrien Broner in a nine-month span in 2017. There was clearly a talent deficiency as the Mexican by way of Chicago tried trading as best as he could but got caught with a Garcia left hook that put him down midway in Round 2. Then, a right hook seated him again toward the end of the round, but the bell saved him.
“I’ve said it before, when Danny Garcia is at his best, nobody can beat him,” Garcia said.“I had gotten a little comfortable in the past, but I put my 110 percent into this fight and when I do, I beat everyone.”
Several of Garcia’s trademark left hooks landed at will throughout the fight. He complemented his onslaught with combinations in Round 3 that drew blood from the nose of Granados.
The undercard featured heavyweight title challenger Andy Ruiz (32-1, 21 knockouts) of Imperial, Calif., beating Russian veteran Alexander Dimitrenko (41-5, 26 knockouts) in the co-main event. Ruiz dominated throughout with faster hands and superior power, and the bout was stopped after the fifth round upon advice of Dimitrenko’s corner.
In another undercard fight, Brandon Figueroa (19-0, 14 knockouts), the younger brother of Omar Figueroa, outworked and battered Yonfrez Parejo (22-4-1, 11 knockouts) for eight straight rounds to win the World Boxing Assn. interim super-bantamweight belt. The Venezuelan quit on his stool before beginning the ninth round.