Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas – On Saturday night, Hector Luis Garcia (16-2, 10 KOs) suffered his second defeat in a row. (photo by Ryan Hafey)
Back in January, Garcia moved up to the lightweight limit and suffered a stoppage loss to Gervonta Davis.
This time around, at his natural weight of 130-pounds, Garcia was outboxed by Lamont Roach (23-1-1, 9 KOs), who did enough to secure a twelve round split decision win – and the WBA’s super featherweight title.
The scores were 114-113 for Roach, 114-113 for Garcia, and 116-111 for Roach.
A knockdown in the twelfth was the difference in the scoring. Roach landed a left hand that caught García on the head and sent him down with 1:20 left in the frame. It was second time in García’s career to taste the canvas.
Garcia disagreed with the scorecards – and he also felt the referee blew the sequence which led to the knockdown in the final round. Garcia says the punch caught him to the back of the head and the referee should have issued a warning instead of making a knockdown call.
However, Garcia admits that he failed the follow the promised game plan of being aggressive in the fight.
“I thought I won the fight, but that’s what happens when you leave it in the judges’ hands. That last round made all the difference,” Garcia said. “The punch that knocked me down was to the back of my head, but I guess the ref didn’t notice it.
“I should have been more aggressive and thrown more punches, but [Roach] just wouldn’t let me and the fight was a grind throughout. I’m not about to lose hope. I’m gonna recover and come back stronger than ever.”