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Lightweight prospect Ryan Garcia blasted through another opponent tonight, stopping Romero Duno in just 98 seconds in Las Vegas as the co-feature to the Canelo vs Kovalev main event at MGM Grand.
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Garcia (19-0, 16 KO) put Duno (21-2, 16 KO) down with a right hand, and the fight was stopped, as Duno was pretty clearly in no condition to continue. Even favored to win, Garcia was supposed to be facing a step up against a tough warrior here, but that wound up not being the story of the fight. Duno’s always leaky defense just beat him before he could dig in and push back much at all.
“I feel good. It’s kinda what I expected,” Garcia said. “He caught me with that overhand right right on the chin, but I took it. When I took his best shot, I was, like, ‘Alright, I got him.’ Everybody knows he has a big overhand right, but when I took it, I was, like, ‘Oh, OK,’ and I felt good from there.”
Garcia has recently been called out by fellow young gun Devin Haney, the WBC titleholder, but he didn’t make any big callouts of his own post-fight.
“I just want better competition,” he said. “I’m only 21 and a lot of people forget that. I’m going at my pace. Whatever I feel I’m ready for, I’ll take on. Those fights are going to be huge later on, but whatever my team says, that’s what I’ll do. I always want to listen to my team.”