Mikey Garcia took home a technical Unanimous Decision over Orlando Salido on Saturday night in the HBO-televised main event from Madison Square Garden in New York City, capturing the WBO Featherweight title for his efforts.
It was an absolutely dominant performance for Garcia, who knocked Salido down four times in the encounter. Two knockdowns came in the first round, each from a well placed left hook, and he scored a knockdown in the third and fourth rounds as well.
Beaten and battered as he was, it looked like Salido would be able to hang in there for the duration. However, in the 9th round, Garcia was on the wrong end of what was ruled as an accidental headbutt, getting a broken nose in the process.
The doctor waved off the action and the fight went to the scorecards, and with all of the knockdowns, there certainly was no question as to who the winner would be.
Official scorecards read 79-70, 79-69, 79-69 for Garcia after 8 complete rounds, who improves to 31-0 with 26 knockouts.
Golovkin vs. Rosado Results
In earlier action, WBA middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin retained his strap, his undefeated record and his high KO percentage with a 7th round TKO over the tough, game Gabriel Rosado. Rosado’s corner jumped in to halt the action as a reasonably competitive fight deteriorated into a bloody beat down in the round.
Rosado did his best to stay on the defensive while looking for opportunities to land his own shots. However, Golovkin was the man in the charge from the get-go, and was just too powerful and too fine-tuned for Rosado, improved as he is. We’re talking a difference of 350 amateur fights against 11 here, not to mention that Rosado was moving up from junior middleweight.
A solid effort from Golovkin, he did what he needed to do. Rosado’s standing shouldn’t be hurt at all in the process either, facing the bigger and better guy and giving it as much as he could.
Martinez vs. Burgos Results
In the first fight of the tripleheader, Juan Carlos Burgos was robbed of a win and a championship, as his fight against Roman “Rocky” Martinez ended in a Split Draw. Burgos imposed his will throughout much of the encounter, landing excellent body shots, throwing and connecting with more punches, and seemingly winning a solid 8 or 9 rounds.
However, one judge gave Martinez the fight with a 116-112 scorecard (the other cards read 117-111 for Burgos, and 114-114), leading to the draw, which was unjust for Burgos who has become a bit of a hard-luck fighter. It’s certainly possible that we could end up seeing a rematch here.
