Garcia vs. Salka
Philadelphia’s Danny Garcia needed a big performance on Saturday night against Rod Salka to silence his critics. On Showtime’s headlining bout from Brooklyn, New York, Garcia may have done just that landing a spectacular left hook and knocking out Salka at officially two minutes and thirty-one seconds of the second round.
Garcia, who improves to 29-0 with 17 knockouts, has been chided by some in boxing circles not only since his bout against Salka, (19-4, 3 knockouts) was announced but ever since his controversial decision against Mauricio Herrera. Some felt that he had lost the fight to Herrera and were outraged that he chose to follow up that fight against the lightly regarded Salka from Bunola, Pennsylvania, a small town just outside of Pittsburgh. Not all of the criticism was warranted however as Garcia’s last eight opponents all had been former or current champions. Neither of Garcia’s titles was on the line in this one as both the WBA and WBC refused to sanction the bout. The bout was fought at a catchweight of 142.
From the opening bell, Garcia’s speed and size were evident against the overmatched Salka. Garcia easily won round one by consistently landing a quick jab, doubling up the left hook to the body and stalking his opponent. Salka was able to land a few counter punches but Garcia’s speed and movement were too much. Interesting to note is that Salka’s right hand was surprising low in round one which was odd since you would have thought that they would have trained to guard against the Garcia left hook.
In round two, Garcia landed a huge overhand right which was set up by a picture perfect jab/feint to the body. Salka was visibly rocked by the shot and went down after Garcia followed up with multiple body shots. Salka was up at the count of seven but Garcia jumped on him and landed multiple shots to the side of his head causing Salka to take a knee. Salka once again rose to his feet and Garcia attacked him ruthlessly by landing huge power shots and wobbling Salka again. Salka was game and motioned Garcia to bring it. Garcia obliged him by landing a wicked left hook which flattened Salka, this time he would not beat the count.
After the fight, Garcia was asked by Showtime’s Jim Gray if he (Garcia) took an easy fight by choosing Salka to which Garcia replied, “I came here and did what I was supposed to do, it doesn’t always happen in boxing, I trained hard, I didn’t listen to the people saying it was going to be an easy fight, cause if I would have taken it lightly, he would have came in here and probably upset me but I took this fight like I take any other fight. I came prepared and did what I was supposed to do”
Garcia continued, “No fight is easy unless you put the hard work in and I put the hard work in. I got the W, It has nothing to do with my opponent because when Danny Garcia is at his best he can beat anybody and I already proved that”
On the prospects of fighting Lamont Peterson, who was victorious on the undercard, Garcia stated “I’m all about fighting the best fighters, I’ll leave it up to Al Haymon, but if he wants it, he can get it too, cause that’s what I do, I’m a fighter”
Peterson vs. Santana
Destroy the body and the head will fall is an old adage in boxing and although Edgar Santana didn’t fall, his body was destroyed by Lamont Peterson. Halfway through the tenth round, ringside Doctor Barry Jordan had seen enough and stopped the fight.
If you missed the fight, you need only watch any one of the nine previous rounds prior to the tenth round stoppage to understand what happened in the fight. Every round was virtually a carbon copy of the next. Peterson dominated each round by utilizing excellent lateral movement, changing angles, landing tremendous hooks to the body and head, and stunning Santana with timely uppercuts. The ShoStats showed that 219 of Peterson’s 281 total punches landed were power shots. Comparatively, Santana only landed 94 total punches. Santana could never get going in this one and seemed to be tiring throughout the fight fell to 29-5 with the loss.
Peterson of Washington D.C. retained his IBF Junior Welterweight Title and improves to 33-2-1 with 17 knockouts. Said Peterson after the fight, “I was able to show a lot of dimensions of my game, boxing well, fought on the inside well, I really think I should have probably got him out of there earlier than I did, overall I give myself an ok grade”
When asked if his next opponent would be Danny Garcia should he win, Peterson stated, “I hope so”
Article submitted and posted at Behind The Gloves.com
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