Boxing Challenge: Garcia knocks out Campbell!

   The 2021 boxing challenge started earlier than normal with a critical lightweight eliminator that may have proven the worth of one of boxing's brightest prospects.

Ryan Garcia got up from the floor in the second round and then became the first fighter to stop Luke Campbell after cracking Campbell with a left hook to the liver that sent Campbell to the floor and took the ten count on the mat at American Airlines Arena in Dallas.

I had Garcia slightly ahead after six rounds at 57-56, but after Garcia hurt Campbell at the end of the fifth round, it was the younger fighter that was charging forward and was beginning to control the exchanges.

Ryan Garcia answered some questions but created others in the biggest win of his career.

Garcia proved that he can rebound from adversity and that his punching power is going to carry forward against top ten competition- if Garcia can land against you, he can take you out.

However, getting knocked down by Luke Campbell, who isn't known for his power, isn't a good sign for how Garcia will take the punches of heavier hitters such as Teofimo Lopez, Gervonta Davis, and even Devin Haney, and his defense will leave openings for him to get him more than he would wish.

All of the above-named fighters punch harder than Luke Campbell does and I do wonder how things will turn out when Garcia gets hit against those fighters and Garcia seemed to be a bit slow with his footwork and that could make him susceptible to quicker boxers.

There are still questions to be answered, but Ryan Garcia took his first step towards being a champion.

In the co-feature, Roger Gutierrez avenged a stoppage loss to Rene Alvarado with a unanimous decision victory for a minor title.

Alvarado stopped Gutierrez in the eighth round and won the majority of the rounds in their rematch, but Gutierrez knocked Alvarado down twice in the third round with Alvarado barely surviving.

Alvarado took back control and seemed to be on his way to victory, but in the final round Gutierrez scored another knockdown of Alvarado and that would make the difference on the scorecards as each judge gave Gutierrez a 113-112 decision. Without the knockdown, Alvarado would have salvaged a draw as each judge gave more rounds to Alvarado (7-5), but the final knockdown accounted for the point separating the two.

Even with the three knockdowns, I still had Alvarado winning 113-112 (8-4 in rounds, minus three points for the knockdowns). 

Considering the action in the fight and the close decision, I'd suspect a third fight between the pair is likely to happen in the future.

Rene's twin brother Felix retained his IBF junior flyweight championship with a tenth round knockout of former IBF minimumweight champion DeeJay Kriel in another entertaining fight.

Alvarado knocked down Kriel in the second and fourth rounds, but Kriel's heart won the night as he continued to fight through the harder punches of the bigger man and even won some rounds before the punishment finally wore down Kriel, leaving the referee little choice but to end the fight with a battered Kriel against the ropes and taking punishment.

In the newest boxing challenge, Ramon Malpica and I each scored two points on the card.