Elijah Garcia stopped Armando Resendiz in a fantastic, all-action fight to kick off the Canelo vs Charlo pay-per-view, with the 20-year-old middleweight staying unbeaten.
Garcia (16-0, 13 KO) and Resendiz (14-2, 10 KO) went right at one another from the opening bell, hardly using any of the ring’s greater real estate and staying toe-to-toe at center ring throughout.
Resendiz put in a tremendous effort, but was just a bit out-gunned by Garcia, who scored a knockdown in the eighth round, and the fight was stopped shortly after when referee Tony Weeks stepped in during another Garcia flurry.
The official time of the stoppage was 1:23 of round eight.
“It was a really hard fight. Armando Resendiz is good people,” Garcia said. “His fans, his people are the nicest people in the world, and I wish him nothing but the best. He was real tough.”
“100 percent (the) toughest fight (of my career). In training camp, I knew this was going to be the hardest fight of my career, and I left everything I could in the ring,” he added.
Garcia continues to target winning a world title by the time he’s 21.
“I think I’m getting better every single fight, and it starts in the gym,” he said. “Right after this, I want to go get some food, but I’m getting my ass back in the gym Monday. One step at a time, fight these harder opponents, and I’ll get closer to that world title.”
CompuBox saw Garcia landing 216 of 609 (35%) total punches, including 165 of 358 (46%) of his power shots. Resendiz landed 166 of 729 (23%) total punches, working incredibly hard to win this one and find an advantage. He was tallied at 102 of 386 (26%) power shots.