Danny Garcia stops Brandon Rios in ninth with a crushing right
Danny Garcia and Brandon Rios met in a welterweight showdown that both men desperately needed to win in order to advance their careers.
Coming into this fight, Danny Garcia was coming off the first loss of his career, a close decision loss to Keith Thurman last July. Brandon Rios, on the other hand, had only fought once in a little over two years. The deck was stacked against Rios from the very beginning.
In Round 1, Garcia landed some meaningful shots without breaking a sweat. Rios followed Garcia around the ring, while Garcia fired shots to his body and head. Rios looked like he was sleepwalking and afraid to throw a punch. This was not the start that Rios needed to win this fight.
Garcia continued to coast in Round 2. He patiently boxed from the outside as Rios tried to make his way inside. Rios woke up a bit and started to become more aggressive, throwing more punches. The crowd started to chant his name but he probably still lost the round, though it was close.
Garcia boxed effectively from the outside in Round 3, but Rios started to find a home for his looping right hand. He started to push Garcia around in this round. His physicality bothered Garcia and won him the round.
Garcia opened the fourth with a series of hooks to Rios’s head. Rios had his moments where he teed off on Garcia’s body when he was on the ropes. Garcia landed a beautiful straight right with 1:15 left in the round. He deserved to win the round based on this one punch. He landed it again within the final 20 seconds. This was a good round for Garcia.
In the fifth, Rios and Garcia exchanged power punches. Garcia’s boxing came through in the second half of the round. Rios had a hard time finding him and missed a lot of his shots. Garcia invested punches to Rios’ body in the final minute, putting another round in his pocket.
Rios came out aggressively in the sixth. He landed early and stayed fairly active. It was his best round since the third. Rios outworked Garcia and emphatically won his second round of the fight, looking like he was in vintage form.
He didn’t let up and stayed busy in the seventh. Rios looked confident and Garcia looked passive. Garcia came alive in the last 40 seconds of the round landing clean body punches, but he surrendered the initial 2 minutes and 20 seconds, and Rios turned this into a competitive fight.
Garcia landed some nice counter punches early in the eighth. He threw more in this round, and his punches were accurate. Garcia came alive, and he needed to in order to keep Rios from taking over the fight.
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The ninth went back and forth early on. Garcia peppered punches into Rios’ body and head. He did a nice job of distributing his punches high and low. In the last minute, Garcia shocked Rios with a concussive right that sent him flat on his back. Rios beat the count to his feet, but he was unsteady. The referee rightfully stopped the fight.
Even though Rios was dropped and stopped, he proved that he still has something left in the tank. He can still fight, but his chin is not the same. Rios can’t take punches like he used to.
Garcia is one of the best welterweights in the world and will likely go on to challenge for another title. Rios can hang with B-level fighters, but his days as a top boxer are over. He can still fight but he can’t win against the best. It will be interesting to see what Rios’ next move is.