Ryan Garcia bounced back from a loss to Gervonta Davis by stopping Oscar Duarte in eight rounds.
The now super-lightweight contender took his time to get to grips with the agression of Duarte, who entered the ring on a run of 11 consecutive stoppage wins.
At the post-fight press conference, Garcia said he deserved credit for the performance.
“He was a tough fighter. I knew he was gonna be tough. Everybody was asking why did I take this fight, so now I’ve gotta get my credit where it’s due.
I fought in there. I had a fight with some grit and found a knockout, so I think I did good, especially in my first fight with Derrick.”
The 25-year-old switched his camp to the gym of Derrick James following his loss to ‘Tank’ – the first of his professional career.
Garcia started quick that night in Las Vegas, but was knocked down for his troubles in round two and then stopped with a body shot in the seventh.
It was the 27th knockout of 29 wins for the Baltimore puncher, and strengthened his claim as one of that hardest pound-for-pound hitters in the sport.
Garcia, however, said he was much more ‘scared’ of the power of Duarte.
“This was scarier than fighting Tank. [Duarte] had a hard punch. I don’t ever complain, but that dude hit me so hard in the back of the head. It doesn’t look hard, but it is hard.
I was actually more worried in this fight than I was with Tank. With Tank it was like, all right it’s a boxing match, he’s moving around, whatever. But this fight I was like ‘oh s**t, he has the power to knock you out.'”
Davis is expected to return to the ring in the first half of 2024 in the lightweight division, whilst Garcia will continue to progress at 140.