Danny Garcia defeats Ivan Redkach in monotonous, yet dominant bout

Former welterweight titlist Danny Garcia had his way with Ivan Redkach in a one-sided unanimous decision victory. Who’s next?

There were no surprises on Saturday, Jan. 25. Danny Garcia (36-2, 21 KOs) easily outboxed Ivan Redkach (23-5-1, 18 KOs) to win a unanimous decision at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Garcia mentioned all fight week that Redkach was preparation for a future megafight, and so far, things are playing out as planned.

After his Jan. 22 media workout, Garcia said, “My mind was set on a southpaw, so after we couldn’t have the Errol Spence Jr. fight, I wanted the next tough southpaw. We’re not looking past Redkach at all, but we wanted the southpaw work for that fight or a Pacquiao fight. We’ll be all ready when those fights come up.”

Garcia proved that he’s ready for a top-tier, southpaw welterweight after making easy work of Redkach in a bout that went the distance.

From bell to bell, Redkach was outclassed. Garcia used his superior boxing IQ to defeat Redkach. He was aggressive at times, counterpunched, and landed high and low on Redkach throughout the fight. Redkach had no answers and allowed his frustrations to boil over at times.

In round 7, Garcia perfectly timed Redkach to deliver a counter right hand that opened up a cut on Redkach’s eye. Rounds 7 and 8 were precarious for Redkach. He looked uneasy on his feet, and Garcia almost knocked him out, but Redkach lasted until the final bell.

A strange situation occurred in round 8. As Garcia and Redkach came together in a clinch, Redkach slyly bit Garcia on the back of his neck in a way that the referee couldn’t see. After the round, Garcia’s father and trainer Angel notified the referee about Redkach’s foul, but no points were deducted.

After the bout, Garcia delivered an entertaining postfight interview with Showtime’s Jim Gray.

When asked about Redkach’s round 8 bite, Garcia said, “He bit me. He [Redkach] said, ‘Mike Tyson’ when he bit me.”

The Barclays Center crowd laughed at Garcia’s storytelling. He continued saying, “I said ‘ref he bit me!’ I thought I needed stitches or something.”

Outside of the bite, Garcia revealed to Gray that he let his weight get of control during his nine-month layoff.

“I’m not going to lie, I felt good, but I didn’t feel my best,” said Garcia. “I did lose a lot of weight for this fight. Maybe that did play a factor. I lost about 25 pounds in eight weeks.”

Garcia boxed well over 12 rounds, but couldn’t get the knockout. It was a good bout to get Garcia primed for a significant matchup against one of the big-name southpaw welterweights that are out there. Manny Pacquiao seems to make the most sense, but we will have to wait and see who is next for Garcia.