“Win tonight, look good next time.”
The popular boxing maxim – thought to have originated with trainer Georgie Benton – came to mind on Saturday night when welterweight contender Danny Garcia dominated Ivan Redkach over 12 largely ho-hum rounds at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Garcia (36-2, 21 KOs) won by scores of 118-110, 117-111, 117-111 in what was a relatively painless win for the Philadelphia native. Garcia bruised Redkach (23-5-1, 18 KOs) all night with his accurate power punches, leaving no doubt as to the end result. Still, it was a workmanlike performance at best from a world-class welterweight who has been gunning for a big fight for the past year against the likes of Manny Pacquiao and Errol Spence Jr. It remains to be seen if he’ll get that opportunity in 2020.
This was Garcia’s first fight since his seventh-round stoppage of Adrian Granados nine months ago.
“I thought the referee was going to stop it,” Garcia said after the fight. “I felt like I was punishing him, but he’s a tough guy. He hung in there. I wanted to get the KO. I didn’t get it. But I felt like I boxed smart till the end. And I got the rounds in.
“I felt that’s what I needed after a nine-month layoff. Even though I really wanted the knockout bad, I’ll accept this.”
Garcia admitted that the layoff – and the accompanying heft around the waist that he had to lose in camp – might’ve affected his performance.
“I’m not gonna lie, I felt good but I didn’t fight my best,” Garcia said. “I did lose a lot of weight for this fight. I lost about 25 pounds.”
On the other hand, a bit of extra flesh might have come in handy for Garcia in Round 8, when Redkach, a Ukrainian expat who lives in Los Angeles, bit Garcia’s right shoulder seemingly out of frustration during a clinch.
“He bit me. He said, ‘Mike Tyson’ when he bit me,” Garcia said, chuckling. “That’s the first time ever getting bit in a fight. Things happen, though.”
The southpaw Redkach, who was coming off a career-best knockout of Devon Alexander last year, simply had no answer for the hard-hitting counterpuncher in Garcia.
After a slow start, Garcia began to pick up the pace in Round 4, unloading a series of power punches that landed cleanly on Redkach, including a right hand straight down the pipe. At the end of Round 5, Garcia landed a hard right that briefly wobbled Redkach, whose face began dribbling blood.
It appeared Garcia would get a stoppage late. In Round 9, he continued to land punishing combinations. But Redkach not only survived, he had a few moments himself. In the last three rounds, he repeatedly landed a straight left to the body. It was a valiant response, but much too late.
The fight was not much of a crowd pleaser; boos hailed in from all corners of the arena midway through the bout. With a round remaining, large portions of the crowd began heading for the exits.
Afterward, Garcia said he wants to face either Pacquiao or Spence next.
“Either or. Either of those [fights] I would like to have. I think my style fits very well with both fighters,” Garcia said, adding that he would also be interested in a rematch with Keith Thurman, who outpointed him in 2017, or a might with Mikey Garcia.