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‘Tank’ Davis Stops Ryan Garcia with a Near-Invisible but Lethal Body Shot

LAS VEGAS-It was a slow burning fuse that saw Gervonta “Tank” Davis explode with an almost invisible blow to stop a dangerously quick Ryan Garcia to win the battle of undefeated super lightweights on Saturday.
Few saw the slow-reacting blow.
Baltimore’s clever counter-punching Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) proved once again by knocking out Garcia (23-1, 19 KOs) in front of a sold-out crowd at T-Mobile Arena, that he’s a special fighter. Both cautious and dangerous.
Despite the catchweight demands by Davis team to weigh 136, Garcia looked strong, quick and tall in this battle of undefeated young warriors. If there was any advantage it seemed to be the rangier Garcia with his quick jabs and always cocked to explode left hook.
Davis took no chances in testing its lethalness.
The first round saw few blows landing with Garcia more aggressive. His jab and reach kept Davis moving out of range of any dangerous assaults.
Garcia opened up furiously in the second round with a dizzying display of his hand speed that forced the Baltimore fighter to grab ahold. Garcia kept punching through the attempted clinches until the referee stopped the action.
It seemed Garcia was feeling confident about his predictions of an early knockout.
After a slow first round that saw Garcia shoot out quick jabs and set up for lightning left hook counters, Davis was cautious against the taller rangy fighter with knockout power.
Davis then survived the all-out second round assault by the lightning quick and taller Garcia and proved ready with a short counter left to that jaw that sent him to the canvas. Garcia got up quickly after the knockdown, but he seldom opened up with another similar attack.
“I gave him too much respect,” said Garcia. “I thought I had him pretty hurt. But I ran into a good shot an overhand left. It didn’t really hurt. I got impatient and got caught.”
Davis said he was expecting the assault.
“I felt he was more anxious than me. You got to stay calm and don’t want to make a bad decision. Like he did,” said Davis who has faced similar dangerous foes, but not as quick.
From rounds three until end the momentum was fully in Davis favor and he racked up points with strategically placed blows that kept him ahead on points. It was up to Garcia to make a move.
Garcia did score heavily in the sixth round with lead rights that bounced off Davis’s head. But not enough to cause concern for the smaller fighter. He kept his composure always looking for the precise counter.
It came in the very next round.
Knowing he was behind, Garcia made his move and re-ignited his attacking style. Davis seemed very sure of what to do and though he was aware of the quick bursts of the taller Southern California fighter’s style, he waited for the moment. During a short Garcia volley, Davis ducked under a shot and unleashed a short body shot while Garcia fired a right to the head. Both connected but Davis’s blow was a slow-burning body shot that took four seconds to collapse Garcia to one knee. Body shots are like that, they are more painful than head shots.
Referee Tom Taylor counted out Garcia at 1:44 of the seventh round.
The large pro-Davis crowd erupted in a roar at the unexpected knockout. Few saw the blow until it was replayed on the large screen in the arena. A short left to Garcia’s exposed liver caused the paralysis.
Garcia looked stunned by the blow’s effect though he had knocked out several foes in the same manner.
“He just caught me with a good shot,” said Garcia. “No excuses. I just couldn’t get up.”
After the fight Davis and Garcia posed together for photographers.
“] would say he was the best fighter,” said Davis about Garcia. “We was going off of each other’s energy. We was actually talking, it was fun while it lasted. I enjoyed every moment of it.”
So did Garcia.
“I was honored to be in the ring with him,” said Garcia. “He’s a great fighter.”
It started slow but ended with a body shot few could see.
Other Bouts
WBA super middleweight titlist David Morrell Jr. (9-0, 8 KOs) needed less than a round to destroy Brazil’s Yamaguchi Falcao (24-2-1, 10 KOs) and forge his name as a capable contender for better opposition.
“I’m so excited. It’s a big moment for me,” said Morrell.
In a battle between southpaws Morrell proved again that a lefty with a good right hook has the advantage as he used that weapon to floor the Brazilian twice and for good at 2:22 of the first round.
It was hardly a contest.
Morrell only has a handful of pro fights but wields enough power to compete with the big names of the super middleweight division. Put his name down as marquee worthy.
Falcao was hurt almost immediately by Cuba’s Morrell who whacked away at the Brazilian fighter’s body and head. He shredded any semblance of Falcao’s defense with big shots mostly from the wide right hook. A four-punch combo capped by a right hook staggered Falcao and another than sent him to the ropes. The referee halted the assault but it would not save the Brazilian. The fight resumed and Morrell resumed to whack at Falcao with right hooks. Down he went with a thud.
Referee Celestino Ruiz immediately stopped the fight at 2:22 of the first round for a technical knockout win for Morrell.
“I want to fight the best in my division,” Morrell said looking toward David Benavidez’s direction. “Hey David (Benavidez), you’re next.”
Super middleweight Bektemir Melikuziev (12-1, 9 KOs) was able to out-box clever Gabe Rosado (26-17-1, 16 KOs) to avenge his only pro loss in a strategic battle that never opened up into the back-and-forth warfare of their first encounter.
Unlike their first fight, this time Melikuziev never exchanged recklessly as in their first match that saw Rosado knock him out with a counter right cross. This fight was like a tetras game, block by block.
Melikuziev staggered Rosado in the fifth and 10th round but was ultra careful for the counter and took the decision willingly despite the constant boos from the fans for the slow contest.
After 10 rounds all three judges scored the bout 99-91 for Melikuziev.
“This time the goal was to showcase my skills,” he said.
Arizona’s teen-aged Elijah Garcia (15-0, 12 KOs) went the distance for the first time as a pro in defeating Mexico’s rugged Kevin Salgado (15-2-1, 10 KOs) by unanimous decision after 10 rounds in a regional middleweight title fight.
It took Garcia several rounds to adjust to Salgado’s head butts and low blows while fighting inside, so he increased the tempo and took the fight outside for a brief moment in changing the pace of the fight.
It worked.
“I was standing a little too still,” said Garcia. “I had to move and box a little bit.”
Garcia took control with combinations on the outside especially with the right hook-left cross-right hook combination. Though he was deadly accurate Salgado took the punches like a human sponge.
Still, Garcia took over the fight even on the inside and used his combinations in-between Salgado’s to score big and cause Salgado to slow down. A low blow by the Mexican-based fighter in the seventh round sparked a point deduction from referee Robert Hoyle. After 10 rounds all three judges scored in favor of Garcia 95-94, 97-92 twice for the teen from Phoenix.
Photo credit: Al Applerose
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Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More

Arne’s Almanac: The Good, the Bad, and the (Mostly) Ugly; a Weekend Boxing Recap and More
It’s old news now, but on back-to-back nights on the first weekend of May, there were three fights that finished in the top six snoozefests ever as measured by punch activity. That’s according to CompuBox which has been around for 40 years.
In Times Square, the boxing match between Devin Haney and Jose Carlos Ramirez had the fifth-fewest number of punches thrown, but the main event, Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero, was even more of a snoozefest, landing in third place on this ignoble list.
Those standings would be revised the next night – knocked down a peg when Canelo Alvarez and William Scull combined to throw a historically low 445 punches in their match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 152 by the victorious Canelo who at least pressed the action, unlike Scull (pictured) whose effort reminded this reporter of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” – no, not the movie starring Paul Newman, just the title.
CompuBox numbers, it says here, are best understood as approximations, but no amount of rejiggering can alter the fact that these three fights were stinkers. Making matters worse, these were pay-per-views. If one had bundled the two events, rather than buying each separately, one would have been out $90 bucks.
****
Thankfully, the Sunday card on ESPN from Las Vegas was redemptive. It was just what the sport needed at this moment – entertaining fights to expunge some of the bad odor. In the main go, Naoya Inoue showed why he trails only Shohei Ohtani as the most revered athlete in Japan.
Throughout history, the baby-faced assassin has been a boxing promoter’s dream. It’s no coincidence that down through the ages the most common nickname for a fighter – and by an overwhelming margin — is “Kid.”
And that partly explains Naoya Inoue’s charisma. The guy is 32 years old, but here in America he could pass for 17.
Joey Archer
Joey Archer, who passed away last week at age 87 in Rensselaer, New York, was one of the last links to an era of boxing identified with the nationally televised Friday Night Fights at Madison Square Garden.

Joey Archer
Archer made his debut as an MSG headliner on Feb. 4, 1961, and had 12 more fights at the iconic mid-Manhattan sock palace over the next six years. The final two were world title fights with defending middleweight champion Emile Griffith.
Archer etched his name in the history books in November of 1965 in Pittsburgh where he won a comfortable 10-round decision over Sugar Ray Robinson, sending the greatest fighter of all time into retirement. (At age 45, Robinson was then far past his peak.)
Born and raised in the Bronx, Joey Archer was a cutie; a clever counter-puncher recognized for his defense and ultimately for his granite chin. His style was embedded in his DNA and reinforced by his mentors.
Early in his career, Archer was domiciled in Houston where he was handled by veteran trainer Bill Gore who was then working with world lightweight champion Joe Brown. Gore would ride into the Hall of Fame on the coattails of his most famous fighter, “Will-o’-the Wisp” Willie Pep. If Joey Archer had any thoughts of becoming a banger, Bill Gore would have disabused him of that notion.
In all honesty, Archer’s style would have been box office poison if he had been black. It helped immensely that he was a native New Yorker of Irish stock, albeit the Irish angle didn’t have as much pull as it had several decades earlier. But that observation may not be fair to Archer who was bypassed twice for world title fights after upsetting Hurricane Carter and Dick Tiger.
When he finally caught up with Emile Griffith, the former hat maker wasn’t quite the fighter he had been a few years earlier but Griffith, a two-time Fighter of the Year by The Ring magazine and the BWAA and a future first ballot Hall of Famer, was still a hard nut to crack.
Archer went 30 rounds with Griffith, losing two relatively tight decisions and then, although not quite 30 years old, called it quits. He finished 45-4 with 8 KOs and was reportedly never knocked down, yet alone stopped, while answering the bell for 365 rounds. In retirement, he ran two popular taverns with his older brother Jimmy Archer, a former boxer who was Joey’s trainer and manager late in Joey’s career.
May he rest in peace.
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Bombs Away in Las Vegas where Inoue and Espinoza Scored Smashing Triumphs

Japan’s Naoya “Monster” Inoue banged it out with Mexico’s Ramon Cardenas, survived an early knockdown and pounded out a stoppage win to retain the undisputed super bantamweight world championship on Sunday.
Japan and Mexico delivered for boxing fans again after American stars failed in back-to-back days.
“By watching tonight’s fight, everyone is well aware that I like to brawl,” Inoue said.
Inoue (30-0, 27 KOs), and Cardenas (26-2, 14 KOs) and his wicked left hook, showed the world and 8,474 fans at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas that prizefighting is about punching, not running.
After massive exposure for three days of fights that began in New York City, then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then to Nevada, it was the casino capital of the world that delivered what most boxing fans appreciate- pure unadulterated action fights.
Monster Inoue immediately went to work as soon as the opening bell rang with a consistent attack on Cardenas, who very few people knew anything about.
One thing promised by Cardenas’ trainer Joel Diaz was that his fighter “can crack.”
Cardenas proved his trainer’s words truthful when he caught Inoue after a short violent exchange with a short left hook and down went the Japanese champion on his back. The crowd was shocked to its toes.
“I was very surprised,” said Inoue about getting dropped. ““In the first round, I felt I had good distance. It got loose in the second round. From then on, I made sure to not take that punch again.”
Inoue had no trouble getting up, but he did have trouble avoiding some of Cardenas massive blows delivered with evil intentions. Though Inoue did not go down again, a look of total astonishment blanketed his face.
A real fight was happening.
Cardenas, who resembles actor Andy Garcia, was never overly aggressive but kept that left hook of his cocked and ready to launch whenever he saw the moment. There were many moments against the hyper-aggressive Inoue.
Both fighters pack power and both looked to find the right moment. But after Inoue was knocked down by the left hook counter, he discovered a way to eliminate that weapon from Cardenas. Still, the Texas-based fighter had a strong right too.
In the sixth round Inoue opened up with one of his lightning combinations responsible for 10 consecutive knockout wins. Cardenas backed against the ropes and Inoue blasted away with blow after blow. Then suddenly, Cardenas turned Inoue around and had him on the ropes as the Mexican fighter unloaded nasty combinations to the body and head. Fans roared their approval.
“I dreamed about fighting in front of thousands of people in Las Vegas,” said Cardenas. “So, I came to give everything.”
Inoue looked a little surprised and had a slight Mona Lisa grin across his face. In the seventh round, the Japanese four-division world champion seemed ready to attack again full force and launched into the round guns blazing. Cardenas tried to catch Inoue again with counter left hooks but Inoue’s combos rained like deadly hail. Four consecutive rights by Inoue blasted Cardenas almost through the ropes. The referee Tom Taylor ruled it a knockdown. Cardenas beat the count and survived the round.
In the eighth round Inoue looked eager to attack and at the bell launched across the ring and unloaded more blows on Cardenas. A barrage of 14 unanswered blows forced the referee to stop the fight at 45 seconds of round eight for a technical knockout win.
“I knew he was tough,” said Inoue. “Boxing is not that easy.”
Espinoza Wins
WBO featherweight titlist Rafael Espinosa (27-0, 23 KOs) uppercut his way to a knockout win over Edward Vazquez (17-3, 4 KOs) in the seventh round.
“I wanted to fight a game fighter to show what I am capable,” said Espinoza.
Espinosa used the leverage of his six-foot, one-inch height to slice uppercuts under the guard of Vazquez. And when the tall Mexican from Guadalajara targeted the body, it was then that the Texas fighter began to wilt. But he never surrendered.
Though he connected against Espinoza in every round, he was not able to slow down the taller fighter and that allowed the Mexican fighter to unleash a 10-punch barrage including four consecutive uppercuts. The referee stopped the fight at 1:47 of the seventh round.
It was Espinoza’s third title defense.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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Undercard Results and Recaps from the Inoue-Cardenas Show in Las Vegas

The curtain was drawn on a busy boxing weekend tonight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas where the featured attraction was Japanese superstar Naoya Inoue appearing in his twenty-fifth world title fight.
The top two fights (Inoue vs. Roman Cardenas for the unified 122-pound crown and Rafael Espinoza vs. Edward Vazquez for the WBO world featherweight diadem) aired on the main ESPN platform with the preliminaries streaming on ESPN+.
The finale of the preliminaries was a 10-rounder between welterweights Rohan Polanco and Fabian Maidana. A 2020/21 Olympian for the Dominican Republic, Polanco was a solid favorite and showed why by pitching a shutout, punctuating his triumph by knocking Maidana to his knees late in the final round with a hard punch to the pit of the stomach.
Polanco improved to 16-0 (10). Argentina’s Maidana, the younger brother of former world title-holder Marcos Maidana, fell to 24-4 while maintaining his distinction of never being stopped.
Emiliano Vargas, a rising force in the 140-pound division with the potential to become a crossover star, advanced to 14-0 (12 KOs) with a second-round stoppage Juan Leon. Vargas, who turned 21 last month, is the son of former U.S. Olympian Fernando Vargas who had big money fights with the likes of Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. Emiliano knocked Leon down hard twice in round two – both the result of right-left combinations — before Robert Hoyle waived it off.
A 28-year-old Spaniard, Leon was 11-2-1 heading in.
In his U.S. debut, 29-year-old Japanese southpaw Mikito Nakano (13-0, 12 KOs) turned in an Inoue-like performance with a fourth-round stoppage of Puerto Rico’s Pedro Medina. Nakano, a featherweight, had Medina on the canvas five times before referee Harvey Dock waived it off at the 1:58 mark of round four. The shell-shocked Medina (16-2) came into the contest riding a 15-fight winning streak.
Lynwood, California junior middleweight Art Barrera Jr, a 19-year-old protégé of Robert Garcia, scored a sixth-round stoppage of Chicago’s Juan Carlos Guerra. There were no knockdowns, but the bout had turned sharply in Barrera’s favor when referee Thomas Taylor intervened. The official time was 1:15 of round six.
Barrera improved to 9-0 (7 KOs). The spunky but outclassed Guerra, who upset Nico Ali Walsh in his previous outing, declined to 6-2-1.
In the lid-lifter, a 10-round featherweight affair, Muskegon Michigan’s Ra’eese Aleem improved to 22-1 (12) with a unanimous decision over LA’s hard-trying Rudy Garcia (13-2-1). The judges had it 99-01, 98-92, and 97-93.
Aleem, 34, was making his second start since June of 2023 when he lost a split decision in Australia to Sam Goodman with a date with Naoya Inoue hanging in the balance.
Check back shortly for David Avila’s recaps of the two world title fights.
Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank
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