Lara halts Garcia, retains WBA middle belt

By Miguel Maravilla at ringside

WBA middleweight world champion Erislandy “The American Dream” Lara (31-3-3, 19KO’s) of Miami by way of Guantanamo, Cuba retained his title as he stopped two-division world champion Philadelphia’s Danny “Swift” García (37-4, 21 KO’s) in the ninth round in the Canelo-Berlanga co-feature on Saturday night at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Feeling each other out in the opening round, Garcia countered and waited for openings as the southpaw Lara stuck the right jab. Working patiently in the second and third round Lara and Garcia continued to figure each other out as they began drawing whisltes from the crowd. It was still a strategic fight on the part of Lara and Garcia in the fourth but Garcia began pressing late in the round as Lara shot the straight left.

There seemed to be a lack of offense heading to the fifth as Garcia and Lara boxed a chess match. Halfways into the fight in the sixth, Garcia stalked as Lara kept his distance. Not much action halfway through as Garcia and Lara continued to box in the seventh. Not really much offense as the fight headed to the eighth Lara and Garcia attempted to disect one another as they continued to box conservatively.

However in the ninth, Lara connected on Garcia with a straight left and scoring a knockdown at the end of the round. Garcia walked backed to his corner as his father and trainer Angel Garcia told the referee his son had seen enough as referee Thomas Taylor stopped the fight at the end of the round.

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