Former two-division world titlist Danny Garcia got his tune-up out of the way, and now he hopes it’s on to a truly major fight.
Garcia easily outpointed overmatched underdog Ivan Redkach, battering him throughout a one-sided welterweight world title elimination bout Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The judges scored it 118-110, 117-111 and 117-111 as Garcia dished out a beating to Redkach, who was selected in part because he is a southpaw.
The reason: Garcia’s next fight likely will be a big one — a world title shot against either unified 147-pound titlist Errol Spence Jr. (26-0, 21 KOs) or titleholder and resident boxing legend Manny Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs), both of whom are also left-handed.
In fact, Garcia was due to meet Spence on Saturday night but the fight was called off before it had even been formally announced after Spence sustained injuries in a high-speed, one-car accident in October. But Spence is due back late this spring or in early summer, as is Pacquiao, and Garcia will probably be a challenger for one of them.
First came Redkach (23-5-1, 18 KOs), 33, a Ukraine native who fights out of Los Angeles, who showed very little other than an ability to take punches without going down.
After a bit of a slow start, Garcia began to turn up the heat in the fourth round, when he began to work Redkach over to the body and land nice combinations and left hooks. Redkach could only muster sticking out his tongue at Garcia in the final seconds of the round after getting hit.
Garcia (36-2, 21 KOs), 31, of Philadelphia, continued to pound Redkach in the fifth round, including hurting him with a right hand late in the round. He marched forward at will, showing virtually no respect for Redkach’s offense.
In the seventh round, as if Redkach didn’t have enough problems with Garcia, he sustained a cut over his left eye.
Redkach had taken such a beating that, just as the ninth round began, referee Benjy Esteves called timeout so the ringside doctor could examine him. The fight was allowed to go on but Garcia, who was headlining at Barclays Center for the eighth time since the building opened in 2012, continued to dole out punishment. Redkach’s one offensive move was to bite Garcia on the left side of his neck at the end of the ninth round.
Garcia’s overwhelming dominance was illustrated in the CompuBox statistics. He landed 195 of 568 punches (34%) and Redkach landed just 88 of 578 (15%).