Gamboa Stops Garcia in Fourth Round

Cuban-born Yuriorkis Gamboa successfully defended his WBA featherweight title on Saturday night with a fourth-round knockout over Panama's Whyber Garcia before a packed house at the WaMu Theater in New York's Madison Square Garden.

Gamboa, a 27-year-old former Olympic gold medalist, dropped Garcia with a left-right combination that deposited him face down early in the round.

Garcia beat the count, but took about 20 or so unanswered punches before referee Steve Smoger stepped in to wave an end to their fight 58 seconds into the fourth.

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Gamboa (16-0) collected his sixth consecutive knockout and his 14th in the past 15 fights against Garcia (22-7, 15 KOs).

"One of the strategies that we had been working on was study the fighter, settle in a little bit before we started taking offensive strategy," said Gamboa, who is promoted by Top Rank and was a 2004 Olympic gold medalist. "I definitely prefer when the opponent comes at me, because it makes me look better with my counter-punches and lets me unload on them."

Gamboa's victory could set up a potential match with Puerto Rico's 122-pound WBO champ Juan Manuel Lopez (26-0), who went after his 25th knockout and his 15th straight against Tanzanian native Rogers Mtagwa (26-12-2, 18 KOs) of Philadelphia in defense of his WBO super bantamweight title Saturday night, also at the WaMu Theater.

In a scheduled 10-round, junior middleweight (154) matchup, Polish-born Pawel Wolak dropped Brazil's Carlos Nascimento for only the second time in his career with a fifth-round left hook, and wound up with his 17th knockout when Nascimento did not come off of his stool for the sixth.

Wolak won for the fourth straight time to improve to 25-1, and Nascimento, bleeding badly over his right eye, slipped to 24-2 (20 KOs).

Also, Cuban-born, heavyweight and former Olympic gold medalist, Odlanier Solis of Miami rose to 15-0 with his 11th knockout in the second round against 38-year-old, former contender Monte Barrett (34-8, 20 KOs) of Queens, N.Y., in their scheduled 10-rounder.

Coming off of an 11-month layoff since being stopped by David Haye in five rounds of his last bout in November, Barrett beat the count after being dropped with a second-round left hook.

But Barrett went down, yet again, from a series of combinations punctuated by a clubbing, overhand right along the ropes that forced referee Wayne Kelly to step in and stop the fight at 1:54 of the second round.

"I saw that with 40 seconds left in one of his last fights, I think that it was against David Haye, where I noticed that he would leave the right hand out too far, and then he would drop it. I knew that if I threw my left hand, that I would catch him," said the 6-foot-1 Solis, who came in at a career-high 271 pounds.

"The weight didn't affect me at all," said Solis. "I'm working on my conditioning, my strength, and that's been my main focus. I want to keep moving on for the future, and that's what I was able to do tonight."

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Check out a round-by-round blog of the Gamboa vs. Garcia fight below.

Yuriorkis Gamboa vs. Whyber Garcia.

Round 1: Gamboa leads with a left hook that goes wide as Garcia keeps his distance at ring-center. A left hook lands by Gamboa to the body, and later a left hook to the head. Not much action by either fighter until Gamboa charges in with a combination that ends with a follow-up left to the head. Before the bell, Gamboa fires several punches -- including a hard left hook -- although many are blocked. Gamboa's round, 10-9.

Round 2: Gamboa jabs to the body and drills a right hand to Garcia's left ear. A wild left lands by Gamboa. Garcia attempts to get his left jab going, which bothers Gamboa until Gamboa drills home another right over the top. Gamboa takes a lead right hand and wins the round based on being busier. Gamboa's round, 10-9.

Round 3: Gamboa jumps in and hammers a right to the head of Garcia. Another hard right catches Garcia, who appears to be troubled by Gamboa's ability to get in and out. A right catches Gamboa's attention, but Garcia clinches as his right eye has begun to redden. A short, counter-right by Garcia catches a ducking Gamboa, who answers with a by clubing with a looping right just before the bell. Gamboa's round, 10-9.

Round 4: Gamboa steps in and lands a left, then drills a right hand that causes Garcia to pitch forward, face-first, onto the canvas. It doesn't appear that Garcia will rise, yet when he does, it is only to be greeted viciously. Another right and around 20-or-so unanswered punches force referee Steve Smoger to wave an end to their bout at the 58-second mark. Gamboa wins, fourth-round TKO.