Garcia outpoints Guerrero, wins WBC welterweight title

Associated PressJan 23, 2016, 11:58 PM EST

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Danny Garcia needed several rounds to figure out how to handle Robert Guerrero. He still had plenty of time left to claim his first welterweight title in style.

Garcia won the vacant WBC 147-pound belt Saturday night with a resourceful performance in a unanimous-decision victory over Guerrero.

Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) recovered from a slow start and largely controlled the later rounds to win a world title in just his second welterweight bout. The Philadelphia fighter took charge with a dominant right hand, out-boxing and punishing Guerrero (33-4-1) before surviving a frantic 12th round.

“I’m back where I belong,” Garcia said. “It was what I expected. I knew I would win at least eight or nine rounds.”

Garcia won 116-112 on all three judges’ scorecards to claim the WBC title left vacant by the retirement of Floyd Mayweather Jr., who watched from ringside in the Staples Center crowd of 12,052.

The main event was scored identically by judges Max DeLuca, Rey Denesco and Steve Weisfeld, who only varied in their opinion on two rounds. The Associated Press also scored it 116-112.

After cementing his claim for the next big star in the welterweight division, Garcia celebrated in the ring with his new green title belt – and a tiny replica for his 5-month-old daughter, Philly.

“I was throwing my combinations, using my legs like my dad told me to do,” Garcia said. “I knew he was going to come to fight. He’s a rugged warrior.”

Earlier, former U.S. Olympic heavyweight Dominic Breazeale survived a knockdown to remain unbeaten when Amir Mansour quit before the sixth with a mouth injury. Welterweight prospect Sammy Vasquez also stayed unbeaten when Aron Martinez quit with an injury before the seventh.

Garcia didn’t waste his quick opportunity for a 147-pound title shot after a championship-winning career at 140 pounds. He beat Amir Khan, Erik Morales, Lucas Matthysse and Lamont Peterson at junior welterweight before moving up to 147 pounds last August with a ninth-round stoppage of veteran Paulie Malignaggi.

Guerrero got off to an impressive start against Garcia, but became less mobile and less effective late in his third career loss in a welterweight title fight, following previous defeats against Mayweather and Keith Thurman. The former multi-division champion’s career has hit a crossroads with three losses in his last five fights, along with two debatable decision victories.

But Guerrero was more aggressive early on at Staples, following Garcia around the ring and landing big shots while Garcia backpedaled. Garcia also complained about head-butts, but he gradually gained control of the bout, exploiting Guerrero’s lack of head movement and defense.

The bout turned after Guerrero rocked Garcia with a straight left to the head in the fifth. Garcia recovered and answered with a series of punishing right hands in the sixth.

Garcia exerted control from there, but Guerrero occasionally replied before they finished with an all-action 12th round.

“Not one person out there thought Danny won, but his team,” Guerrero said. “I pressured him. I nailed him, busted his body up. I out-jabbed him. The crowd thought I won the fight. I thought I won the fight, and I definitely want a rematch.”

Garcia is heavily backed for stardom by Premier Boxing Champions, Al Haymon’s company putting fights back on network television. Garcia has backed up the hype for years with lively, athletic performances, but was tested more than many expected by Guerrero.

The pre-fight promotion featured the usual shenanigans of both fighters’ excitable fathers, Angel Garcia and Ruben Guerrero. The fathers, who both train their sons, even exchanged trash talk during the faceoff before the bout.

Breazeale (17-0, 15 KOs), a former college football quarterback who boxed at the London Olympics, got rocked repeatedly by the 43-year-old Mansour (22-2-1) in the first three rounds. Breazeale, whose mother died on New Year’s Eve, crashed to the canvas in the third.

He recovered well and landed several big fifth-round punches on Mansour, who quit on his stool, believing he had broken his jaw. A subsequent trip to the hospital revealed his jaw wasn’t broken, but his tongue was badly injured, a PBC spokesman said.

“Shows I have punching power after all,” Breazeale said.

After fighting for Ukraine, Lomachenko fights again in ring

Associated PressOct 28, 2022, 10:06 AM EDT

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NEW YORK – When Ukraine was invaded, the only fight Vasiliy Lomachenko would consider was the one for his home.

Boxing plans were put on hold, even though they appeared set to include a title match. Lomachenko calls being undisputed champion his dream, but his country’s war with Russia is real life.

“I couldn’t understand anything about what’s happening militarily,” Lomachenko said through an interpreter, “but inside you, you have a feeling of what you need to do.”

Now he’s resuming his career, starting Saturday night in the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden against unbeaten Jamaine Ortiz in a bout that will stream on ESPN+.

Win, and Lomachenko (16-2, 11 KOs) could move on to another chance to fight for the lightweight titles he once owned. But either way, first he’s headed back to Ukraine, which he believes is secure enough now to allow his family to return home this week after staying with him in California while he trained.

Nobody was sure that would be the case when Russia launched the invasion in February. Lomachenko was in Greece at the time, with an expected fight against then-lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. being planned for later in the year.

He went back to Ukraine and joined a territorial defense battalion, telling his advisers he would be unavailable to take that fight.

“When this was happening, when this started, nobody really knew anything about anything,” Lomachenko said. “And when you really have no understanding about what’s going on, every normal person, every normal citizen would go and defend his country and that’s what the majority of men do in our country.”

For Lomachenko, that meant being part of a team that enforced a 10 p.m. curfew, patrolling the streets to make sure there were no cars in sight. After about a month of that, he was trained to take part in several other duties.

“No military operations, but certain tasks,” Lomachenko said. “For example, a suburban area in the outskirts of the city that we needed to go out and do some reconnaissance, make sure that no alien people, no one unknown is basically located in that area.”

Lomachenko is one of Ukraine’s greatest athletes, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who compiled a 396-1 record as an amateur. After turning pro, he won a title in his third fight and was a champion in three weight classes after his 12th.

He eventually owned three lightweight belts before losing them to Teofimo Lopez in October 2020. Two straight wins following shoulder surgery had him on the path back toward a title shot before the war.

Lomachenko was given breaks during his service to train, so he doesn’t believe his time away will affect the rhythm and footwork that are among boxing’s best. Ortiz (16-0-1, 8 KOs) doesn’t expect to see slippage from the fighter the Worcester, Massachusetts product has sparred against.

“I think the opponent in front of you brings out the type of fighter you are,” Ortiz said, “and I think Lomachenko is going to bring out the best Jamaine Ortiz, the fighter that everybody around me in the gym and in New England and where I come from knows.”

Lomachenko likely would have been favored to beat Kambosos, who had won the titles from Lopez. With Lomachenko unavailable, the Australian instead fought Devin Haney and dropped them in a lopsided decision, then lost the rematch two weeks ago by another wide margin.

Lomachenko doesn’t fret about the opportunity that was lost, just as he doesn’t wonder what if about the fight with Lopez. That was originally expected to take place in the spring of 2020, perhaps in what would have been a packed Madison Square Garden, where Lomachenko is 5-0. Instead, it was pushed back months because of the coronavirus and held in a mostly empty setting in Las Vegas after a nearly 14-month layoff for Lomachenko. Maybe things would have been different without the pandemic.

“I don’t have any regrets at all,” he said. “Everything happens the way they’re supposed to happen.”

Nor does he worry that the likelihood of regaining the belts will be tougher now that Haney has them. Lomachenko is small for the 135-pound weight class and would have to beat a skilled, naturally bigger man, similar to Lopez.

“The sweeter the victory shall be,” said Lomachenko, with a smile.

Tyson, 54, to return for exhibition match against Jones Jr.

Associated PressJul 23, 2020, 5:21 PM EDT

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CARSON, Calif. — Mike Tyson is coming back to boxing at age 54.

The former heavyweight champion will meet four-division champion Roy Jones Jr. in an eight-round exhibition match on Sept. 12 at Dignity Health Sports Park.

Tyson became the youngest heavyweight champion in history when he won the title in 1986 at age 20 and for a time was the most feared fighter in boxing. But his career became littered with distractions and he hasn’t boxed since 2005 after losing his second straight fight.

He has occasionally teased a return with workout videos and it’s finally scheduled to happen.

Jones, 51, won titles in the middleweight, super middleweight and light heavyweight before moving up to win the heavyweight title in 2003, becoming the first former middleweight champion to do so in 106 years.

The event will air on pay-per-view and the social media music platform Triller. Further matches on the card and musical entertainment will be announced in the coming weeks.