LAS VEGAS — Despite facing personal and professional adversity early in his career, Ryan Garcia’s immense talent always suggested a return to the summit was only a matter of time.
Garcia delivered a commanding performance against Mario Barrios, securing a unanimous decision victory to claim the WBC welterweight championship. The judges scored the bout 119-108, 120-107 and 118-109 in favour of Garcia (25-2, 20 KOs) of Victorville, California.
“It feels good to finally be a world champion,” Garcia said according AP. “It´s something I´ve been dreaming of since I was 7 years old.”
Garcia already has begun to turn to his future, looking at WBO super lightweight champion Shakur Stevenson and saying he wanted him next.
This was the second underwhelming bout in a row for Barrios of San Antonio, who was fortunate to escape with a majority draw victory over Manny Pacquiao last July.
In the co-main event, Gary Antuanne Russell retained his WBA super lightweight title with a unanimous decision over Japan´s Andy Hiraoka.
The judges scored the fight 117-110, 116-111 and 116-111. Hiraoka was penalized a point in the 10th round for delivering a punch below the belt that caused a short stoppage.
Richardson Hitchins of New York was scheduled to defend his IBF super lightweight belt against Oscar Duarte of Mexico, but pulled out of the fight citing an illness. That bout was supposed to be the co-main event. There was no immediate word on whether Hitchins would forfeit his title for the late cancellation.
Garcia went to work right away, knocking down Barrios with an overhand right just 30 seconds into the bout. He didn´t recklessly try to finish off Barrios, however, patiently using combination to the champion´s head. One such combo late in the third round briefly staggered Barrios.
“I was caught early with a punch I didn´t see,” Barrios said. “Other than that, he had the better game plan. He fought very smart, very explosive, very intelligent. It was his night.”
As Garcia kept picking his spots, the 30-year-old Barrios had no real answers to counter the attack. Barrios occasionally landed a right, but nothing seemed to slow down Garcia, who relied heavily on his right hand.
“I was working on my right hand pretty much the whole camp,” Garcia said. “I literally didn´t throw left hooks because I knew they were going to be preparing for the left hook. So, it was common sense to kind of just keep firing that right hand.”
