Danny Garcia knocks out Erik ‘El Terrible’ Morales in the fourth round

In what could be the bitter end to his Hall-of-Fame career, Erik ‘El Terrible’ Morales (52-8-0, 36 KOs) was knocked out in the fourth round with a thunderous left hook from youngster Danny ‘Swift’ Garcia (24-0-0, 15 KOs), who retained his WBC, WBA, and The Ring Light Welterweight titles. 

From the onset of the Saturday fight (Sunday, PHL time), there was no doubt who the better fighter was. Morales appeared gaunt after the weigh-in and looked all of his 36 years of age on top of the ring. Garcia pressed on to hurt Morales many times throughout the fight. After the third round, Morales sulked on his corner looking like he’d already gone through ten rounds instead of three.

 Shortly after, Garcia put an end to Morales’ misery with a picture perfect left hook to send the legend to the canvass for good.

 The inaugural fight card at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn was in deep jeopardy when Erik Morales failed a random drug test. Morales’ two urine samples taken earlier this October tested positive for the banned substance.

 Garcia initially said that he would not fight Morales but he had a change of heart. The young Mexican-American would have passed on a million dollars if he chose not to push through with the fight. 

Morales failed the tests administered by U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, testing positive for the banned substance clenbuterol which aids in weight loss. Morales and his team claimed that they got it from eating contaminated meat.

 This was the second meeting of the two fighters. Garcia defeated Morales via unanimous decision last March for the WBC light welterweight title. He then followed that up with a huge victory over Amir Khan to unify his WBC title with Khan’s WBA title.

 In the undercard, Paulie Malignaggi (32-4-0, 7 KOs) scored a slim split decision verdict over Pablo Cesar Cano (25-2-1, 19 KOs) to retain the WBA welterweight title. As usual Malignaggi employed a combination of good movement with pinpoint punching to do just enough to defeat the power-punching Mexican. Two judges scored it 114-113 for Malignaggi while judge Glenn Feldman scored inexplicable 118-109 for Cano.

 Devon Alexander (24-1-0, 13 KOs) won the IBF welterweight title over Randall Bailey (43-8-0, 37 KOs). Alexander used his superior boxing skills to keep the powerful Bailey at bay. The crowd was frustrated at some points, as they felt Alexander was holding back on his attacks as he was wary of Bailey’s power. In the end, all three judges had it for Alexander with the scores of 115-111, 116-110, and 117-109.

 Bailey won the vacant IBF welterweight title with a dramatic knockout victory over the formerly undefeated Mike Jones in the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao versus Timothy Bradley card last June. This was his first time to defend the title, but Alexander easily took it from him. 

In the first of four world title fights in the card, Peter Quillin (28-0-0, 20 KOs) scored six knockdowns en route to a unanimous decision victory over Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam (27-1-0, 17 KOs). It was a battle of two undefeated fighters with N’Dam N’Jikam defending his WBO middleweight title but Quillin dominated the fight, flooring the champion twice each in rounds 4, 6, and 12. All the judges submitted an identical 115-107. - OMG/AMD, GMA News