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Undefeated lightweight boxing prospect Ryan Garcia needed to make a statement against former title challenger Francesco Fonseca on Friday night in the main event of a DAZN boxing card in Anaheim, Calif.
Garcia, 21, from Los Angeles, scored a picture-perfect knockout in the first round via devastating left hook. Fonseca hit the deck hard and took minutes to recover from the blow. It’s an early candidate for the 2020 knockout of the year in boxing.
Garcia recently joined forces with Canelo Alvarez by training with the four-division world champion under Alvarez’s trainer Eddy Reynoso, and that moves seems to be paying off in a big way already.
Huge Fight Looms for Garcia
Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs) is a babyface killer with quick hands, huge fan support and some of the hardest punches in the division. Garcia is promoted by former world champion Oscar De La Hoya and seems to be cut from the same cloth as the Hall of Famer. In fact, if there’s any single fighter Garcia resembles the most from boxing history, it’s De La Hoya.
Now, Garcia appears headed toward a clash in May against former lightweight champion Jorge Linares, who also scored a huge big knockout on the undercard. Linares stopped Carlos Morales in the fourth round.
But the knockout win for Garcia was a huge moment for the young prospect. Fonseca had previously challenged top star Gervonta Davis and former titleholder Tevin Farmer. Davis stopped Fonseca in eight rounds back in 2017. Farmer defeated Fonseca via 12-round decision the following year. Garcia outdid them both by starching the typically tough Fonseca in just one round.
The amazing knockout was even more scintillating in slow motion.
Garcia Studies Great Champions
Garcia credited his pristine form a product of watching footage of Sugar Ray Robinson, who is typically considered the best pound-for-pound boxer in history. Robinson’s career stretched from 1940 to 1965. Obviously, Garcia has a long way to go before he might be considered anywhere close to as brilliant a boxer as Robinson. Still, he’s just 21 years old and appears to be on his way to becoming a superstar in the sport.
Moreover, the hard-punching riser already boasts 4.8 million followers on Instagram. He might never reach the same heights in boxing as the famed Robinson or other all-time greats, but he has already easily surpassed most of his peers in terms of social clout.
That has to be worth something in today’s world, and his huge knockout win should only add fuel to the fire that is Garcia’s fast and hot rise in the sport.
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