Davis retains WBA lightweight title after stopping Garcia in 8 rounds

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

The heavy-hitting Gervonta Davis put on another boxing masterclass after scoring a technical knockout victory over Hector Luis Garcia, to keep his World Boxing Association (WBA) lightweight championship belt last January 8, 2023.

The TKO victory was given to Davis after Garcia’s camp waved the white flag when the ninth round was about to kick off.

It was a disastrous eighth round for Garcia as Davis tagged him with several vicious shots to the haw, head, and body.

The last 45 seconds of the eighth round looked like 45 seconds of hell for Garcia as Davis nearly floored him after hitting him with a clean left hook.

The pride of Dominican Republic then wobbled, lost his balance, and fought for survival as Davis poured in the attack and was able to hit him in the head three more times when he got tagged in the corner in the last 10 seconds of the round.

When the ninth round was about to begin and Davis was already up to his feet, Garcia was still sitting on his stool bench while being flocked by his management team.

Seconds after the deliberation with the fight committee, Garcia’s coaches raised their hands and waved, claiming that they can’t continue with the fight.

“I knew when I caught him he was hurt. He was hurt bad. He’s a fighter. He didn’t wanna show it,” Davis said during his post-fight interview.

Garcia was doing pretty fine in the early rounds after managing to go toe-to-toe with Davis during several exchanges from rounds 1-4.

However, when the fifth round began, Davis began to measure his distance against the southpaw fighter and unlocked his left hook counter that became his bread and butter in the slugfest.

“I wasn’t throwing a lot of shots in the beginning of the fight because I was trying to beat him mentally. I was trying to trick him with my hands and my eyes, and things like that, because he’s a tough fighter. I had to bait him. His southpaw style bothered me a little bit because I don’t fight a lot of southpaws, but it’s ok. It’s part of the game,” Davis added.

With the win, Davis improved his professional boxing record to 28 wins, 26 knockouts, without a single loss while Garcia tasted his first-ever defeat and fell to 16 wins, 10 knockouts, and a loss.