Brooklyn, New York got to see welterweights Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson display their array of talents in the ring on Showtime boxing in a non-sanctioned match last night at the Barclays Center, the only problem? They weren’t fighting each other, to the misfortunes of Rod Salka and Edgar Santana.
The main event between Danny Garcia (29-0 17KOs) and Rod Salka (19-4 3KOs) went pretty much as most expected. Garcia thoroughly dominated his overmatched opponent en route to delivering a thunderous 2nd round left hook to Salka’s jawline that left him counting sheep and checking out the inside of his eyelids while Garcia celebrated victory. The fight was over at the 2:31 mark and was never competitive.
From the opening bell, it was clear that Salka was in over his head. He was bouncy on his feet and failed to ever get into a comfort zone to mount the least bit of offense against Garcia. Of only 69 total punches thrown, Salka landed just 10. Garcia, who often looked like he was in sparring practice; landed 50 of 117 punches. It quickly became evident toward the end of the first round that Garcia was on the hunt for a knockout. Of the 117 total punches thrown, 79 were considered power punches and many of those were thrown in short, punishing combinations that Salka was never able to recover from.
“I came here to purge,” said Garcia, the WBA and WBO champion. “I told everybody tonight was going to be the Danny Garcia show. No matter who I fought tonight they were going to get beat. I was going to purge. I was out to kill. No fight is easy unless you put in the hard work. My fans love me. It has nothing to do with my opponent, because when Danny Garcia is at his best he can beat anybody, I leave it up to Al Haymon to decide my opponents. It doesn’t matter to me. I show up on fight night and always find a way to win.”
The co-main event of the evening featured IBF titleholder Lamont Peterson (33-2-1 16KOs) and Edgar Santana (29-5 20KOs) for the Jr. welterweight world title. While this fight was somewhat more competitive than the marquee bout, it still ended up being a mismatch. Peterson worked the body of Santana with precision as the match wore on, hurting him multiple times. In the 5th round, after being on the receiving end of a vicious combination of body blows and upper-cuts, Santana looked like he was on his way to the canvas, but wobbled on the ropes. He continued to take punch after punch until the ringside doctor prompted referee Pete Santiago to stop the fight at the 2:48 mark of the 10th round, after seeing Santana could no longer protect himself.
“The win means a lot to me,” Peterson said after the fight. “Overall, I wasn’t that impressed with him. Anyone I fight could hurt me but I feel really good.”
Peterson then went on to clear up any speculation and announced that he wants his next fight to be Danny Garcia. After the fight, Golden Boy’s vice president of promotion’s Eric Gomez said a Peterson-Garcia bout later this year, or early next year is being discussed. May I say: Boxing NEEDS this, badly. The sport needs another interesting fight to look forward to other than Mayweather/Pacquaio, which at this point doesn’t look like it’s ever going to happen.
The opening fight of the broadcast featured hometown Brooklyn fighter Daniel Jacobs defeating Australia’s Jarrod Fletcher, stopping him at 2:58 of the 5th round and winning the vacant WBA middleweight title.
“It feels so great to win this belt, the greatest moment in my life,” Jacobs said. “This was so important to me that I trained smart.”
The win was extra special for Jacobs. Not only did he gain a title but he also became the first boxer ever to win a belt after becoming a cancer survivor. He was was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, a life-threatening form of bone cancer that left him partially paralyzed with a softball-sized tumor that was wrapped around his spine. Doctors told him he would never walk, let alone box again.
Overall the night featured no surprises in the winning department but gained boxing some traction to put some big fights together. The Garcia-Peterson fight needs to be made. Fans shouldn’t have to wait. Hopefully boxing learned it’s lesson from the all-but-missed opportunity to make a statement fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
Here are results from the non-televised fights:
D’metrius Ballard (6-0 4KOs) def Barry Trotter (2-2 1KO) TKO Rd 1
Prichard Colon (11-0 11KOs) def Lenwood Dozier (9-7-1 4KOs) Unanimous Decision 60-54
Marcus Browne (12-0 9KOs) def Paul Vazquez (10-6-1 3KOs) TKO Rd 1
Anthony Peterson (34-1 22 KOs) def Edgar Riovalle (37-19-2 26 KOs) KO Rd 1
Sadam Ali (20-0 12KOs) def Jeremy Bryan (17-4 7KOs) Split Decision 96-93