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.