LAS VEGAS – Danny Garcia calls himself Swift. Now we know why. He was swift to emerge from anonymity. He was swift to impose himself on the junior-welterweight ranks. And he was so swift to dispose of heavily-favored Amir Khan Saturday night that it might take Khan awhile to understand what happened.
Garcia appeared to be outclassed for three rounds by the speed in Khan’s hands and feet when suddenly Khan was down and looking as if he had been trampled. One looping left from Garcia seemed to catch Khan between his jaw and neck dropped him as if he were a pedestrian hit by a speeding truck.
Khan got up, but his eyes looked as hollow as his future.
The inevitable end was there, in those eyes and like that nickname on Garcia’s trunks and robe. It was swift. In the fourth, it was over. Khan was finished, a TKO loser at 2:28 of the round at Mandalay Bay. A wobbling Khan ran into straight a right that put him back on to the canvas early in the fourth. Late in the round, two Garcia rights, a double shot, proved to Khan’s last call. Again, Khan managed to get up. But referee Kenny Bayless looked at him once, looked at him again, asked him a question and said no more.
“Maybe, they made the right decision,’’ Khan (26-3, 18 KOs) said.
No maybes about it.
Khan said his mind was clear and that he was ready to fight on as he had against Marcos Maidana in the in the 2010 Fight of the Year. But his advantage was gone. Garcia (24-0, 15 KOs), bloodied over his right eye in the second round, had proven what Breidis Prescott exposed in a first-round KO of Khan in 2008. It’s called a suspect chin. It’s not suspect anymore. It’s forever stamped as fragile.
“I always knew I was going to win this,’’ said Garcia, who was about a 4-to-1 underdog and an 8-to-1 shot to win by knockout. “I needed a great fighter in front of me to show how great a fighter I was.’’
There were doubts about Garcia’s credentials, which now includes the World Boxing Association’s version of the 140-pound title to go along with the World Boxing Council’s belt. He beat a fading Erick Morales. But the wear-and-tear on the aging Morales left questions about that victory.
“I hit him with the same shot that I hit Morales with,’’ said Gracia, who collected $540,000, $410,000 less than Khan’s $950,000. “That shows how good a fighter Morales still is.’’
And, maybe, how great a fighter Garcia is about to be.
On The Undercard
The Best: Puerto Rican lightweight Abner Cotto (14-0, 6 KOs), Miguel Cotto’s nephew, showed he understands the family business with an eighth-round stoppage of Mexican Juan Manuel Montiel (7-6-3, 2 KOs).
Cotto rocked Montiel with a blinding succession of punches along the ropes. Dazed and already flat-footed, Montiel looked as if were ready to surrender. Referee Jay Nady didn’t give him the chance. Nady ended it 1:03 of the eighth.
The rest: Super-middleweight Fernando Guerrero (24-1, 18 KOs) scored a knockdown in the second round and points through the next eight for a unanimous decision over Jose Medina (17-11-1, 7 KOs) of Tifton, NH; Toronto junior-middleweight Phil Lo Greco (24-0, 13 KOs) needed more time to walk to the ring than he needed to stop Brandon Hoskins (16-2-1, 8 KOs), a Missouri fighter who was knocked down twice and beaten by TKO 86 seconds after the opening bell; super-middleweight J. Leon Love (12-0, 7 KOs) of Dearborn Heights, Mich., scored two knockdowns in the first round and then relied on an accurate jab for a unanimous decision over Joseph De Los Santos (10-1-3, 4 KOs) of Puerto Rico; Orlando junior-middleweight Daquan Arnett (5-0, 3 KOs) had a short night, scoring a second-round KO of Eddie Cordova (3-3-1, 1 KO) of Clearfield, Utah; Jamie Kavanaugh (11-0-1, 5 K0s), an Irish lightweight training at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Calif., scored a unanimous decision over Paul Velarde of Orange, Calif.
