The official time of the stoppage was 1:44 of Round 7.
***
Davis landed a straight left to the right side of Garcia, which hurt him and made him turn away from Davis. He tried to continue fighting but he evidently was in too much pain. The took a knee, hung his head and stayed down.
ROUND 7
Knockout! Davis hurt Garcia with a body shot midway through the round, forcing Garcia to take and knee. And he didn’t get up before being counted out.
ROUND 6
Garcia landed a good right hand early, which just pissed off Davis. Tank then picked up his attack, including more to the body. Davis is outboxing Garcia and doing enough to win rounds, although this one was closer.
ROUND 5
Same pattern. Neither guy is landing many punches. Davis did land several body shots, which might’ve won him the round. Waiting for something dramatic to happen again.
ROUND 4
Competitive round, although Davis probably won it. This is essentially a chess match, both guys trying to figure out how to land the big shot without getting hit with it. A lot of drama.
ROUND 3
Uneventful round compared to the previous one. Both guys missed a lot of punches. Interesting, though: Davis is now clearly the aggressor while Garcia is fighting cautiously. Hard knockdowns will do that.
ROUND 2
Down goes Garcia! Weird round. Garcia went after Davis at several junctions, prompting Davis to hold Garcia. Then, with a minute to go, Davis landed a short left that put Garcia down. He wasn’t hurt badly but he felt it.
ROUND 1
Classic feel-out roung. Both guys jabbed, Garcia a little more. That was it. They’re just getting their bearings.
***
The main-event fighters are making their way to the ring. We’re only a few minutes away.
***
Super middleweight contender David Morrell put late replacement Yamaguchi Falcao down twice and stopped him at 2:22 of the first round.
Morrell (9-0, 8 KOs) began to land hard power shots almost from the opening bell of the scheduled 10-rounder.
The Minneapolis-based Cuban hurt Falcao () with a left uppercut midway through the opening round and followed with several more shots, including a right hook that sent the Brazilian into the ropes for the first knockdown.
Falcao was able to continue but a brutal right hook put him back onto the canvas, where he didn’t move for several minutes.
Morrell was defending the WBA’s “regular” 168-pound title, which Boxing Junkie doesn’t recognize. Canelo Alvarez is the undisputed champion.
Falcao, who took the fight on Saturday on 10 days notice, had never been stopped.
***
Bektemir Melikuziev avenged his one-punch knockout loss to Gabriel Rosado by easily outpointing the veteran in a 10-round 168-pound fight.
All three judges scored it 99-91, nine rounds to one. Boxing Junkie also had that score.
Melikuziev (12-1, 9 KOs), a southpaw, began to take control of the fight with his powerful straight left hand in third round.
And the Southern California-based Uzbek landed more and more of them as the fight progressed, adding some right hands for good measure, to pick Rosado apart and win round after round.
Rosado (26-17-1, 15 KOs) tried to box with Melikuziev but got little accomplished. The Philadelphian apparently tried to duplicate the right that stopped his rival in the third round in 2021 but it never came.
Thus, the official scoring wasn’t surprising.
Melikuziev has now won five consecutive fights since his only setback. Rosado, 37, has lost four in a row since his shocking knockout.
***
Nineteen-year-old middleweight contender Elijah Garcia survived a slow start to defeat Kevin Salgado by a unanimous decision in a 10-round bout.
The official scores were 97-92, 97-92 and 95-94. Boxing Junkie scored it 96-93, six rounds to four.
Salgado (15-2-1, 10 KOs) got off to a strong start, outworking a relatively inactive Garcia (15-0, 12 KOs) in the first three rounds, mostly with hard, accurate body shots.
However, Garcia began to box and pick up his pace in Round 4, controlling the fight from that point on both from distance and during inside exchanges with sharp combinations.
Salgado lost a point in Round 7 because of repeated low blows but that factor into the decision.
***
Gervonta Davis is scheduled to face Ryan Garcia in a pay-per-view fight Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Davis (28-0, 26 KOs), a former two-division titleholder, and Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) agreed to a catch weight of 136 pounds for their highly anticipated showdown.
Also on the card, 168-pound contender David Morrell (8-0 7 KOs) will face late replacement Yamaguchi Falcao (24-1-1, 10 KOs) in a 12-round bout.
The featured bouts on the card begin at 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT. The main event will take place later in show.
Boxing Junkie will post round-by-round results of the main event and the result of the co-feature immediately after they end. Simply return to this post and refresh when the time comes.
Full coverage – a fight story, photo gallery and analysis – will follow on separate posts the day of the fight and the following day.
Enjoy the fights!
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