Robert Garcia breaks Victor Cayo down and stops him in 6. Gonzalez squeaks by Medina.

Roberto “La Amenaza” Garcia (35-3, 23 KOs) stalked and beat Victor “Mermelada” Cayo (32-5, 23 KOs) for much of Thursday’s ESPN Thursday Night Fights-televised 10-round welterweight showdown breaking him down with strong punches and relentless pressure. Garcia of Weslaco, Texas walked through everything and anything Cayo had to offer. Cayo of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic was able to land shots but that did nothing to slow the steady and relentless pressure punching by Garcia. Cayo was cut over the right eye in the 4th round and he entered the 5th round with a renewed attack and made it competitive, until close to the end of the round when Garcia landed big right hands and a flurry at the bell. Garcia put even more pressure on in the sixth and it overwhelmed Cayo, a nice body head combination sent Cayo to the ropes and a swarming Garcia finished the job prompting referee Telis Assimenios to step in at 2:38 and call a stop to the bout. Garcia is something of a Cinderella story in the making. Never having reached his potential throughout his 13-year boxing career, he was thrust into an ESPN-televised main event on a few days’ notice against Mexico’s Norberto Gonzalez last February and scored an impressive decision victory.

In the 10-round middleweight co-feature, undefeated 2008 Olympian Jonathan “Mantequilla” González (18-0-1, 14 KOs) of San Juan, Puerto Rico, got a very close win over Mexico’s Rogelio “Porky” Medina (32-6, 26 KOs). Gonzalez and Medina put on a great competitive match and it was Medina who set the tone early with more accurate punches. Gonzales came on in the mid and later rounds, but Medina was clearly the busier fighter while the punches were equally heavy from both combatants. The scores were 96-94 Medina and 97-93 and 96-94 for Gonzalez.

Back in action after three years, James McGirt (23-3-1, 11 KOs) made quick work of very overmatched Larry Smith Jr. (10-21-1, 7 KOs) of Dallas, Texas with a TKO at 2:55 of round 1. Also on the undercard, Cairo Egypt’s Ahmed Elbiale (4-0, 4 KOs) was both impressive and brutal in his light heavyweight four-rounder against Steven Chadwick Jr. (2-6, 1 KO) of Jacksonville, Florida. Elbiale dropped Chadwick just seconds into the bout with a huge left hook and later with a huge right hook that ended the bout with Chadwick out on the canvass where he laid for several minutes before taken out on a stretcher and to the local hospital. Junior lightweight Juan Carlos Velasquez 12-1 (5KO) outpointed veteran Rogers Mtagwa 27-17-2 (19KO) with a majority decision victory in a one sided affair that had the slick boxing Velazquez boxing nice from distance and keeping the hard charging often wild Tanzanian fighter just out of reach. 2012 Florida Golden Glove Champion Jeff “Rambo” Souffrant 1-0 made a successful debut with a UD win over Jorge Quintero 0-2 from Bogota Colombia. Light heavyweight Vilier Quiñones 8-0(5KO) won via TKO over Edgar Perez 5-9(3KO) at :58 seconds of round one. Light heavyweight knockout artist Yunieski Gonzalez (13-0, 13 KOs) of Havana, Cuba, destroyed Colombia’s Jaison Palomeque (14-9-1, 9 KOs) with a TKO1 win at just :47 seconds of round one, brutal senseless mismatch from the get go. The twin brother of Juan Carlos, lightweight Carlos Ivan Velasquez 12-1 6(KO) took a unanimous decision win over Guillermo Sanchez 13-12-1.

Notables in attendance was Joel Casamayor whom was honored, Riddick Bowe, Sergio Martinez, Guillermo Rigondeaux, Buddy McGirt, and Michael Moore.