Mikey Garcia Drops a Shocking Upset Loss to Sandor Martin!
After twenty months removed from his last professional contest, welterweight boxer Mikey Garcia (40-2, 30 KO’s) made a crushing unsuccessful return to the ring. He pulled this off by having no answers or proper adjustments for the Spanish import Sandor “Arrasandor” Martin (39-2, 13 KO’s) who claimed an unexpected split decision win. The prizefight stood as Martin’s first dustup staged on American soil. In fact, all but three of his forty-one bouts were contested in his native Spain.
Given his overall obscurity to the American fanbase, it’s clear that this prizefight was meant to be something of a stay-busy bout. The four-division world champion (five if you count the WBC Diamond welterweight title) was recently in heavy negotiations with Regis Prograis. Clearly those plans dissolved somewhere along the line.
The loss to Martin now puts two losses on his ledger when coupled with his March 16, 2019 undressing at the hands of IBF and WBC world welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. Following twelve rounds of one-sided domination, Garcia dropped a lopsided unanimous decision loss. The Californian bounced back with a solid win over Jessie Vargas. While it was not so destructive, this is another convincing points loss for the American boxer.
SLOW AND STEADY NOT GOOD ENOUGH
The bout began in rather mundane fashion as both fighters felt one another out. The first notable occurrence took place in the second round when the lights at the venue briefly cut out. Garcia was no doubt the bull who sought to track down Martin. Despite his near constant pressure there was not much action to report over the first three rounds. Each man appeared to be more comfortable when the other led, which resulted in a great deal of mutual hesitancy.
Even though there was not a terrible amount transpiring, Martin was seemingly the more comfortable of the two boxers. Utilizing his rather squirrely style of combat, Arrasandor was enjoying good success moving, suddenly stopping to strike and moving again. Garcia easily had his best round thus far during the fifth when he was able to pin Martin against the ropes on several occasions. Sadly for him, Garcia could not follow up with the same success. During the sixth, Martin smoothly slid around on top of the canvas and beat off Garcia whenever he tried to encroach upon him.
FAIRY TALE ENDING
For the first minute of the eighth round, Garcia was held at bay with a half-hearted jab that wasn’t even landing often. To make matters, Martin was not even moving as much but rather was standing his ground more. Even with the more stationary target, the multi-division champion was having no success, offensively. Outside of one big right-hand, that Martin answered, nothing improved for Garcia’s sour situation in the ninth.
The final period saw Garcia move around with more urgency, yet his increased energy didn’t really translate into effective offense. In fact, down the stretch, Martin chose to plant his feet and finished the fight trading shot-for-shot. When the final bell rang, Mikey Garcia looked far from a fighter confident in their impending victory. When the cards were read, Sandor Martin was awarded a shocking split decision win. This comes as a stunning setback for the shell-shocked Garcia. More likely than not ,these two will be meeting again in a rematch.
By: Bakari Simpson
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