Uppercut Magazine.com - Boxing & MMA - Mikey
Photo by Al Applerose
Mikey Garcia
By David A. Avila
California’s Mikey Garcia powered through Connecticut’s Matt Remillard with a 10th round knockout and IBF and WBA featherweight champ Yuri Gamboa floored Mexico’s Jorge Solis five times in winning by knockout on Saturday.
Moreno Valley’s Garcia (25-0, 21 KOs) floored Remillard (23-1, 13 KOs) twice in the ninth round with left hooks and then a final knockdown by a right hand in the 10th forced the East Coast fighter’s corner to throw in the towel.
The battle of undefeated featherweights was emphatically decided by Garcia who becomes the number one contender for the WBA and IBF.
Guess what? That means he fights Gamboa (20-0, 16 KOs) who had few problems in battering the much taller “Coloradito” Solis (40-3-2, 29 KOs) of Mexico. In this case Coloradito means red from embarrassment of being a piñata for the Cuban speedster.
“It was terrible,” said Solis about fighting Gamboa. “He hits harder than Manny Pacquiao.”
Gamboa decked Solis twice in the second round, once in the third, and twice in the final fourth round.
“It was a very good fight,” admitted the victorious Gamboa. Now he wants rival champion Juan Manuel Gamboa of Puerto Rico. Of course that will only happen if their promoter Top Rank puts it together.
“I’ve never said ‘no’ and he has never said ‘no’, said Lopez who walked into the ring at the conclusion of Gamboa’s victory.
And what about Garcia?
The youngest of the fighting Garcia brothers knows that he’s number one but it’s all up to his promoter Top Rank to decide if the time is right.
Garcia was already the mandatory for Gamboa but the Las Vegas-based company spent a lot of money on the Cuban fighter to possibly lose it in a match that would not generate much money. Garcia will have to wait until public demand increases. Right now the featherweight division is heating up again.
Puerto Rico’s Lopez is slated to fight Mexico’s Orlando Salido a very dangerous former champion who gave Gamboa fits and floored him before losing by decision.
