The first of two Golden Boy on ESPN cards this week aired last night on ESPN2. It was a night of quick knockouts as all three fights aired finished within two rounds. 19 year old blue chip prospect Ryan Garcia was highlighted in the main event and he came through with a big finish in the very first round.
19 year old prodigy Ryan Garcia (14-0, 13 KOs) didn’t take long to get rid of veteran opponent Fernando Vargas (32-14-3, 21 KOs) in the main event. The veteran came out and attacked a bit in the first minute, but he didn’t get much done against the 19 year old’s upright style. In the round’s second minute, Garcia began establishing his jab a bit. He used that jab in the last thirty seconds to set up a beautiful right hand and left hook combination. They were pinpoint, accurate shots that put Vargas on his back and ended the fight abruptly. The 19 year old affirmed his status as one of the best prospects in the sport with this performance.
The opener between Keandre Gibson (18-2-1, 7 KOs) and Eddie Gomez (21-3, 12 KOs) looked like a well matched, but potentially unexciting fight on paper given their styles. Neither turned out to be the case. While the first round was an uneventful, jab heavy feel out type round, the second round only took about thirty seconds to be extremely eventful and exciting. Keandre Gibson tossed out an extremely sloppy jab followed basically by his face and Eddie Gomez capitalized with the appropriate right hand. It was a big shot and Gibson went down hard, knee buckling behind him and all. Keandre beat the count, but the referee deemed him unfit to continue and waved the fight off. Given the middling status of these two men, this was a really big win for Eddie Gomez.
18 year old Irish prospect Aaron McKenna (2-0, 1 KO) picked up a first round stoppage win in a swing bout between the two main fights as well. McKenna was too young to fight on the traditional amateur circuit internationally, but he is considered a real prospect and impressed here. He put down Juan Palacios (1-2, 1 KO) once with powerful overhand rights and big body combinations before the ref stopped the fight when Palacios started complaining about imaginary fouls and didn’t seem to want to fight.
