Garcia knocks out Pinoy Concepcion

MIGUEL Angel “Mikey” Garcia of the United States kept his unbeaten run and won by technical knockout in the seventh round against Bernabe Concepcion of the Philippines.

It was a resounding victory for Garcia, who dominated the early part of the fight to improve to 28-0 (win-loss) with 24 KOs.

Concepcion (25W-6L-1D, 15 KOs) dropped to his third loss in his last five bouts.

A powerful right straight sent Concepcion down in the seventh. He got up but Garcia eventually cornered him and landed another brutal barrage prompting referee Luis Pabon to stop the fight at the 2:33 mark.

This was fight between two regional belt holders with Concepcion winning the WBC Continental Americas belt last year and Garcia having the NABF and NABO featherweight titles.

Allan Tañada (11W-2L-2D, 5 KOs) of the Philippines also lost to Gamalier Rodriguez (18W-2L-3D, 12 KOs) of Puerto Rico by unanimous decision. The scorecards read 80-72, 79-73 and 79-73.

In the main event, Orlando Salido of Mexico repeated his stoppage win over Juan Manuel Lopez of Puerto Rico.

In a thrilling slugfest billed afterward as a “Fight of the Year” candidate, the defending champion Salido matched the power-punching Lopez blow for blow and eventually had the Puerto Rican fighting on the back foot.

Lopez scored a knockdown with his right hook in the fifth, a round Salido was dominating.

But Salido continued to apply pressure and landed hard left hooks. In a breathtaking ninth round, both boxers threw caution to the winds and threw everything they had.

In the tenth, four punches in succession to Lopez’ jaw sent him down. He stood up but was on unsteady legs prompting referee Roberto Ramirez to halt the fight at 0:32 of the round.

This was the second loss for Lopez, who dropped to 31W-2L, 28 KOs while Salido won in his second title defense and is now 38-11-2 with 26 KOs. /correspondent Rene Bonsubre Jr.