JORGE ARCE TKO4 ISIDRO GARCIA

It only lasted four rounds, but there was enough action to satisfy everyone as Jorge Arce overpowered Isidro Garcia in their 115-pound title bout on the Chavez-Vanda PPV show.

This was typical Arce. He gets hit a lot, you think he’s in danger of blowing the fight, then he comes back with superior strength and firepower to overwhelm the opposition. He has long been one of my favourite fighters and I think he is destined to go down in ring history as one of the all-time great Mexican crowd-pleasers.

Garcia, predictably, was competitive early. He is a quick, smart seasoned boxer with good hand speed. The Arce faction might have considered Garcia a little too competitive as he hit the champ with right hands and bloodied his nose, fighting so aggressively that the colourful “Travieso” actually went into jab-and-move mode for a while.

With Garcia actually beckoning to Arce to stand and fight, I wondered if an upset might be looming. I needn’t have worried. Arce began to settle down and let the punches fly in the third round. I think that Garcia’s spirited aggression had taken him a bit by surprise, but now Arce was getting right into the fight and coming on strongly — too strongly for his outgunned opponent. The left hooks to the body that crumpled Garcia in the fourth were vintage Arce. Although Garcia beat the count he had clearly had enough and the referee’s intervention was well-timed after a few more shots from Arce.

The fight ended about four rounds sooner than I had expected, but when Arce gets full leverage for those hooks underneath he can sap an opponent’s resistance very quickly.