Anyone watch Khan v. Garcia?

[Exhibitman]

Hell of a fight. Amir Khan was the favorite and the promoter's focus who HBO has been trying to build into a superstar, Danny Garcia was a tough Philly kid who won a vacant belt against a faded Erik Morales a few months ago and was a fill-in for Lamont Peterson after LP tested positive for steriods. Garcia's father, his trainer, is a ridiculous smack-talker and got to Khan, apparently, who vowed to KO his son. Khan, for his part, looked less than impressive against his steroid-enhanced opponent in the last fight and has always had a suspect defense and chin, though great, great heart.

First and 2nd rounds, Khan comes out ready for business, cracking hard with Garcia, cutting his eye, starting to make hamburger of his face. Then, in the third near the end, the two get into an exchange and Garcia cracks Khan with a wild, wide left hook that knocks the Brit on his butt. Khan takes about a 14-count [seemed to me that the ref got to 8 then gave Khan several more seconds to recover while he was asking Khan if he could go on]. No less a ring eminence than Emanuel Steward said that Khan had not done anything wrong from a technical standpoint, he just got caught with a blind shot.

The fourth starts with Garcia again cracking Khan with massive left hooks and Kahn fighting back but wobbling all over the place. Kahn has no legs left. Garcia, very smart fighter, doesn't punch himself out trying to beat down Khan with repeat flurries. He bides his time and headhunts, throwing massive and damaging but very controlled shots. Two more knockdowns. After the 3rd knockdown and Kahn reeling but saying he's OK, the ref [Kenny Bayless, one of the best] doesn't like what he sees and stops it. Garcia wins another title at 140#, plus the Ring linear welterweight [147#] title. Gotta be a fight of the year candidate as both guys were cracking from the opening bell right to the end.

Poor Freddie Roach, three of his four main guys have lost fights recently and Julios Cesar Chavez Jr. is going up against Sergio Martinez in the fall and will likely lose that one.

[Tsaiko]

Thank for posting this, I totally forgot about this fight. Your alert got me to the re-broadcast just in time. Good fight, would've loved to see a few more rounds at that pace.

We've got a local kid here who you might want to keep up on, Vanes "The Nightmare" Martirosyan. He's coming along nicely and has a lot of heart and talent.

Here's some decent footage of him sparring with Chavez Jr.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZxz-...eature=related

[GoldenAge50s]

I keep HBO & Showtime both, mainly for boxing. I watch every fight they show. Last nite was a beauty!

[alanu]

Fight was a good one. Too bad they didn't let the fight go a little longer, Kahn still seemed to have a chance when they stopped it, but then again I wasn't the one getting my head battered.

[Exhibitman]

Originally Posted by Tsaiko

Thank for posting this, I totally forgot about this fight. Your alert got me to the re-broadcast just in time. Good fight, would've loved to see a few more rounds at that pace.

We've got a local kid here who you might want to keep up on, Vanes "The Nightmare" Martirosyan. He's coming along nicely and has a lot of heart and talent.

Here's some decent footage of him sparring with Chavez Jr.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZxz-...eature=related

Glendale? My office is in Burbank.

Roach was quoted as saying that Garcia's smack talk got Khan off his game plan of using his reach and better speed to pick Garcia apart all night and win on points or a technical stoppage. Based on how Garcia looked after 3+ rounds, I'd venture a guess that if he'd stuck to plans the fight would have been stopped around the 8th or 9th for cuts on Garcia.

[Tsaiko]

Neighbors huh? Didn't we meet at the Glendale show last year? I was the geek wearing the Net54 shirt.

Yea, Khan definitely has the sharper tools and I was surprised that he got suckered into a brawl, but who's to say if his speed could've kept up for the entire fight. That first knockout caught Khan right at the base of his skull, behind his ear, that looked like it did a number on his central nervous system.

Garcia seems to "find" a way to win his fights somehow, with those wide hooks. I'd like to see a rematch.

Have you ever seen Martirosyan? He used to fight a lot locally, when he was first coming up. In fact, he fought at the same venue where the card show was.

[dherm360]

good fight.. After the cut in the first I thought Kahn would jab until it was stopped.

I would have like to see Kahn continue after he said he was ok, but geez after what four knockdowns his legs were gone.