Spanish southpaw Sandor Martin 39-2 (13) announced himself of the world stage with a majority decision win against former four-weight world champion Mikey Garcia 40-2 (30) at Chukchansi Park in Fresno, California on Saturday night.
Martin outboxed Garcia for the bulk of the contest, picking his shots off the back foot to run away the winner by scores of 97-93 from judge Carla Caiz, 97-93 from judge Fernando Villarreal and 95-95 from judge Zachary Young.
The even scorecard was giving 33-year-old Californian Garcia every benefit of the doubt.
“Mikey is a legend. It’s a pleasure to share the ring with him,” Martin said through a translator in his post-fight interview with DAZN commentator Chris Mannix. “This is the biggest moment of my career.”
Martin, 28, controlled the action from the get-go, counterpunching at will while Garcia stalked. He dictacted the tempo of the fight and chose when to engage, either deftly avoid Garcia’s lunging attacks or catching him coming in.
Garcia struggled to find and momentum for his offence and showed little urgency even when the 10-round fight entered the later rounds when it was clear he was behind of the cards.
This didn’t stop him from raising his glove triumphantly at the end of every round as he returned to his corner in their 145-pound catchweight bout. Martin was moving from his preferred weight class of junior welterweight.
The 8,000 strong crowd booed the contest in the early going for its lack of action but gradually grew silent as it became apparently local hero Garcia was struggling to box his way into the fight.
Martin was simply the sharper fighter on the night against Garcia, who has not boxed since he outpointed Jessie Vargas in a close fight at The Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, Texas in February last year.
Garcia looked sluggish and it was reflected in the punch stats supplied by CompuBox who had Martin landing 47% of his power punches comarped to just 19% for the short-priced favourite.
Garcia was despondant in defeat but seemed to accept the judges’ scorecards.
“I would definitely consider the rematch,” Garcia told Mannix. “I think two more rounds could have made the difference. I thought I was coming on better in the later rounds. But there’s no excuses. That’s the way it is.”
It was a humiliating defeat for Garcia against the little-known Spaniard. Garcia was trying to line up a fight against former WBA junior welterweight champion Regis Prograis 26-1 (22) after this bout. There would seem to be little interest in that contest after his lacklustre showing tonight.
Even Garcia’s own promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing saw the upset coming late in the fight, live tweeting: “Not sure how you are scoring it but two rounds to go and I think Garcia needs a KO to win.”
