Fight:1208441

By JOHN CANNON MERCEDES -- Before the fight Friday night at the Rio Grande Livestock Showgrounds Rodeo Arena in Mercedes, Carson Jones said that his opponent, Weslaco native Robert Garcia, was an old man and that the younger Jones was going to knock him out at the press conference Wednesday.

Well, the old man took the young man to school and taught him a lesson.

Garcia, who improved to (23-2, 17 KO's)was impressive in his first fight in almost five months as he won by unanimous decision over Jones (12-5-1, 7 KO's) in the main event of The Conquest Friday.

The judges scored the fight 98-89, 100-87, and 99-88 as Garcia won just about every round in the 10-round Welterweight fight.

"This is the kind of fight that the fans deserved after a five month layoff," said Garcia. "I am glad it went the distance that I was able to win just about every round. I have to give credit to Jones though. He fought a very good fight and seemed to take just about everything I threw at him."

"But, I scored a few knockdowns and worked the body on my opponent. Going ten rounds tonight was big because when you get into a championship fight, the distance could be the determining factor and you need to win those called championship rounds."

Garcia knocked down Jones three times throughout the fight with two of them coming in the ninth round. Garcia caught Jones with a straight left hand knocking him down early on in the ninth. Then, he caught him with a body shot late in the same round and Jones went down to his knees.

Garcia seemed to work the body throughout most of the fight, which eventually wore down Jones midway through the fight. But, Jones got a second wind and started taunting Garcia in the sixth and seventh rounds. But, Garcia nailed Jones with a straight right that stunned Jones in the eighth and slowed him down.

"Robert fought a great fight and showed me that he is three fights away from a title shot," said Jesse Reid, Robert's trainer. "We still have a few little things to work on, but once we get those down, he will be a force to reckon with."