Glendale, Arizona – Just when you think you know which way a boxing match is going, the sport’s unexpected beauty arrives like a slap to the face.
Friday night’s Jaime Munguia-Erik Bazinyan undercard was electrified by an out-of-nowhere knockout punch delivered by Spain’s Ricardo Fernandez over previously unbeaten Top Rank prospect Alan Garcia.
Garcia, 21, relied on his height, strength and fitness advantages to have his way with the journeyman Fernandez, sweeping the first four rounds on all three judges’ scorecards.
But in the fifth round, Kansas’ Garcia (14-1) switched his stance to southpaw and dropped his left hand, creating the exact opening Fernandez needed to wind up the punch of his life, a wicked right hand sending the unbeaten prospect crashing backward, the back of his head bouncing on the ring mat under the ropes.
“I took advantage [of the change] to land an overhand right,” Fernandez said humbly. “A good overhand right. I felt it. I felt my knuckle. I felt the excitement. I trained hard for this. I worked for this.”
Someone watching nearby said, “Kid Kansas became Kid Canvas,” and Top Rank matchmaker Bruce Trampler recalled part of a recent conversation with Garcia’s trainer/manager Gloria Alvarado scolding Top Rank: “We should be fighting better guys.”
Upon delivering his fateful punch, Fernandez said, “I saw his eyes [roll backward], I saw he wasn’t getting up.”
Fernandez (16-13) made the sign of the cross while retreating to a neutral corner for the 10-count, reacting to just his second knockout in 29 fights.
“That [sign] was for my grandma, all my family up in heaven who believed in me, all of my [boxing] heroes – I looked up and saw [ringside broadcaster/boxing legend] Julio Cesar Chavez. I didn’t expect to see him there,” Fernandez, 31, said.
The knockout, recorded at 2:25 of round five, came from “the motivation in my head – my city, my family, my woman, my kids.”
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
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