ONTARIO, California – George Garcia got to size up a potential opponent for his son Saturday night.
Elijah Garcia shared a locker room with Armando Resendiz at Toyota Arena, where the young middleweights impressively won their televised fights on the Brandon Figueroa-Mark Magsayo undercard. The 19-year-old Garcia (14-0, 12 KOs), of Wittmann, Arizona, knocked out Uruguayan middleweight contender Amical Vidal (16-1, 12 KOs) in the fourth round of the bout before Resendiz (14-1, 10 KOs) stopped former 154-pound champion Jarrett Hurd (24-3, 16 KOs) early in the 10th round due to a cut.
Garcia and Resendiz won’t necessarily fight next, but George Garcia, who trains his son, had the same thought as many fans who watched them win as part of a “Showtime Championship Boxing” tripleheader.
“He was in our dressing room and I’m thinking, ‘We’re probably gonna fight this guy one of these days,’ ” George Garcia said during a post-fight press conference. “But, you know, that’d be a good fight. Like I said, it’s up to the team. Usually, me and my dad are the ones that make the main decisions. But yeah, we’re in the room and I’m thinking, ‘Damn, this guy’s probably gonna win and we’re gonna have to fight him.’
“But I also thought that, too, [when] I seen Vidal fighting [Immanuwel] Aleem a couple years ago and I was thinking to myself, ‘We’re gonna fight this guy.’ You know, I told Eli, ‘We’re probably gonna fight this guy soon.’ And we ended up fighting him.”
Elijah Garcia – a poised, powerful southpaw – wants to win a middleweight title by the time he is 21 or 22. He likely has earned a spot in at least the WBC’s top 15 in the 160-pound division because Vidal entered the ring ranked ninth by the WBC.
Garcia’s right hook rocked Vidal with 51 seconds to go in the fourth round. He then landed a barrage of power punches that dropped Vidal and caused referee Jack Reiss to immediately wave an end to their scheduled 10-rounder at 2:17 of the fourth round.
“He’s got a lot to learn,” George Garcia, a heavyweight who retired with a 13-1-1 record, said of his son. “You know, we can’t take a fight like that all the time. You know, we’ve gotta get fights that are gonna help him learn and progress, get better as, you know, as a professional fighter. As he turns 20, 21, 22, I think he’ll get a little bit stronger. You know, he’s getting smarter in the ring every time and, you know, that’s where we’re at.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.