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Garcia wins easy decision to set up IBA World Title shot by Mark May The monitor

EDINBURG — It was a bit tougher tune-up than Roberto “La Amenaza” Garcia expected, but he was happy with his dominant performance in a unanimous decision victory over Vance Garvey on Saturday night in front of a sold out Edinburg Baseball Stadium.

The three judges awarded Garcia (24-2) all eight rounds of the welterweight bout, the main event of a card held in front of a standing room only crowd estimated at 4,500 fans. The Monitor scored it 80-72. Garcia’s ninth straight win sets up a shot at the vacant IBA welterweight world title against Mexico’s Freddy Hernandez (22-1, 17 knockouts).

The bout is scheduled for Nov. 30 at Jacob Brown Auditorium in Brownsville. Garcia spoke of his quest to make history by becoming the first Rio Grande Valley boxer to win a world title.

“Freddy Hernandez is the main thing right now,” said Garcia, who is from Weslaco. “I want to dedicate it to the Valley. I want to put the Valley on the map.” Garcia is ranked 3rd by the IBF,6th by the IBA, 10th by the USBO and 16th by the IBO, according to boxinginsider.com. Hernandez is ranked 5th by the IBO and unranked by the IBA and USBO.

Garvey (17-27-5) allowed Garcia to be the aggressor throughout and was content to bundle up for a tight defense and throw the occasional counterpunch. The fight was uneventful with no knockdowns, but Garcia riled up the crowd with several hard rights and uppercuts to the head and body. “My plan was to not stand in front of him,” said Garvey, of Indianapolis. “I had to (focus on defense), he’s a world class fighter and packs a heck of a punch.”

Garcia seemed to have Garvey on the verge of falling in the final round a couple of times, but each time Garvey managed to clinch his opponent each time he got in trouble. “He never stunned me to the head,” Garvey said. “He stunned me on the body.” Garcia, 27, was fine with Garvey’s choice to sit back and take punches.

“It kept him from throwing punches,” Garcia said. “The jab was the major weapon tonight. Tonight was a great experience. I was able to be more confident to let my hands go.” Garvey also seemed to have mouthpiece issues. Twice his cornermen forgot to put it in his mouth at the start of a round, and his mouthpiece was knocked clean out of his mouth on about four occasions, including twice in the eighth round.

Afterward, Garvey explained it was a new mouthpiece that was not molded for his teeth.