BROOKLYN — Two-division world champion Danny "Swift Garcia scored a dominant unanimous decision victory over Ivan "El Terrible" Redkach in their WBC Welterweight Title Eliminator Saturday night, headlining the action live on SHOWTIME from Barclays Center, the home of BROOKLYN BOXING™, in an event presented by Premier Boxing Champions.
"I want to thank team Garcia and all my fans in Brooklyn who came out to see me fight," said Garcia, after he was announced as the winner.
Garcia (36-2, 21 KOs) was sharp from the outset, finding a place for his right hand against the aggressive southpaw Redkach (23-5-1, 18 KOs). Garcia kept Redkach weary of his offense by punctuating his combinations with his signature left hook.
Redkach's offense was centered around landing a straight left hand to the midsection of Garcia, which he was able to place effectively at times. As the fight wore on, Garcia found more holes in Redkach's defense, stumbling Redkach with a left hook early in round four, and battering him with straight right hands late in round five.
Garcia continued his dominance in the seventh round, landing numerous power punches that caused blood to trickle from Redkach's left eye. Garcia's dominance continued to the final round, ending with advantages across the board according to CompuBox. Garcia landed 51% of his power punches, held Redkach to just 88 punches landed and out landed Redkach by over 100 punches.
"I thought the referee was going to stop it because I felt like I was punishing him," said Garcia. "He's a tough guy, he hung in there, I wanted to get the KO, but I didn't get it. I feel like I boxed smart, and I feel like that's what I needed after this layoff. I really wanted the knockout bad, but I'll accept this.
"I'm not going to lie, I felt good, but I didn't feel my best. I did lose a lot of weight for this fight, so maybe that played a factor. From a long layoff, and just losing so much weight. I lost about 25 pounds in eight weeks."
After 12 rounds of action, the judges were in agreement, giving Garcia the edge by final scores of 118-110 and 117-111 twice.
"I promised myself that I'm going to stay in the gym now and stay in shape," said Garcia. "I felt regular, but then when I got on the scale a few weeks ago, I was like 'woah.' So maybe that played a factor, maybe it didn't. I make no excuses. I didn't feel my best, but I felt good."
"This was very good experience for me," said Redkach. "He never had me hurt and I was able to learn a lot. I'm thankful to be in this position that my team put me in and I'm going to keep growing from here. I'm going to get back in the gym and get stronger and better. I'm thankful for the experience against Danny Garcia. I'm going to be back and be much better."
After the fight, Garcia set his sights on the elite fighters in the welterweight division, including unified champion Errol Spence Jr. and WBA champion Manny Pacquiao.
"Either or (Spence or Pacquiao)," said Garcia. "Either of those fights I would like to have. My style looks great against both fighters."