It wasn’t as satisfying an ending as Mikey Garcia would have liked. But in the end he accomplished what he wanted to do last night at the Garden Theater by capturing his first world championship.
Garcia was awarded the WBO featherweight title after his fight against Orlando Salido was stopped after eight rounds after Garcia suffered a broken nose and couldn’t continue.
Garcia (31-0, 26 KOs) was dominating the fight at the time of the stoppage. The native of Oxnard, Calif., had knocked down Salido (39-12-2, 27 KOs) four times and was ahead 79-69 on The Post scorecard after eight rounds. But just before the round ended, Salido’s head crashed into Garcia’s nose, breaking it.
The clash was ruled an accidental head-butt, sending the outcome to the scorecards. All three judges had Garcia way ahead. Two had it 79-69, while one judge saw it 79-70 before a crowd of 4,850.
“I had the perfect fight going,” Garcia said. “I was beating him up really good, and then he drove his head into my face and broke my nose. It was accidental. When he hit my nose there was a flash of pain and it started bleeding.”
Ringside physician Dr. Robert Polofsky examined Garcia before the ninth round and elected to stop the bout.
“It is very broken,” Polofsky said. “He couldn’t breathe. It’s too dangerous to have him continue like that.”
Salido was game despite the repeated knockdowns and thought given more time, he might have won.
“I was coming on in the sixth and seventh rounds,” he said. “I thought I was getting to him. I didn’t think the head butt was enough to do that kind of damage.”
Garcia established himself early, dropping Salido of Mexico twice in the first round. The first knockdown came mid-way through the round when Garcia tagged Salido with a right cross. The second knockdown came just before the bell on a sweeping left hook from Garcia.
Salido seemed fine when the second round began. But he was caught between taking a risk to mount an offense and risking the chance of getting tagged again. It was clear he couldn’t outbox Garcia, so his only choice was to attack, which is a dangerous approach against a counter-puncher with the skills of Garcia.
Midway through the third round, Garcia tagged a charging Salido with an uppercut. Salido lost his balance enough to put his glove to the canvas for a third knockdown. Garcia scored another knockdown in the fourth round on a stiff left jab Salido ran into.
Salido’s predicament became more complicated in the sixth round by black and blue swelling under his right eye. After six rounds, Salido trailed 60-50. But he kept coming in the seventh. His right eye closing, he threw heavy punches, hoping to land something that would change the fight. Garcia was clearly headed to a lopsided victory when the fight was stopped.
* In other bouts, Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan retained his WBO/IBO middleweight title with a seventh-round TKO over Gabriel Rosado of Philadelphia.
Golovkin dominated the fight, opening a nasty cut over Rosado’s left eye that ultimately caused the stoppage. Rosado’s face was a bloody mess when the fight was stopped at 2:46 of the seventh. Golovkin improved to 25-0 with his 22nd KO. Rosado, who moved up from 154 pounds to challenge for the middleweight title, dropped to 21-6 with 13 KOs, but earned plenty of respect for a courageous effort.
The opener of the triple-header ended in a draw. One judge saw defending champion Rocky Martinez of Puerto Rico winning easily, 116-112, while another judge saw Juan Carlos Burgos of Mexico winning easily 117-111. But a third judge saw a 114-114 draw, allowing Martinez to retain the WBO super featherweight belt.