CARLOS ABREGU KO4 IRVING GARCIA

In a wild fight with dizzying swings of fortune, Argentina’s Carlos Abregu was the last man standing when he finished off Puerto Rican Irving Garcia in the fourth round of their scheduled 10-round welterweight thriller on ShoBox.

Although Abregu prevailed he looked a seriously flawed fighter, lacking in defence and atypically fragile for an Argentinean fighter.

Either man could have gone at any time. Down from a right hand in the first round, Abregu had Garcia rocking and reeling around the ring in the second. Both looked alarmingly vulnerable, and when Abregu went down in a heap from a left hook in the fourth the fight looked over. Somehow Abregu got up, but it looked as if one clean hit would finish him off. Analyst Steve Farhood was telling us that Abregu was “losing all form, looking amateurish,” when the Argentinean, as if on cue, dramatically regained control of the fight by hurting Garcia with a right hand and then beating him down with a follow-up barrage. Referee Jack Reiss started to count, then waved the fight off even as Garcia was struggling to rise.

The referee had allowed Garcia to wobble through the second round but I believe the knockdown convinced him that the Puerto Rican boxer’s health would be at risk if he was allowed to continue. There was only one second remaining in the fourth round, and had Garcia beaten the count he might conceivably have been able to turn the fight his way again by landing a big punch, but I had the impression that he had given his all.

It was a thrilling fight — “pure offense from both guys” as commentator Nick Charles put it — and Abregu showed considerable heart and determination to drag himself off the canvas in the fourth and then mount the rally that led to victory.

In the preview I had Abregu favoured narrowly at -160 whereas the sportsbooks opened him at -500 and higher. Players who took a shot with Garcia had action on an extremely live underdog, and they were as close as could be to having a winner.