Danny Garcia on Fire as he controls Kendall Holt

Undefeated super lightweight campaigner Danny Garcia – of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – won almost all the rounds of his distance fight against former world champion Kendall Holt at Los Angeles’ Staples Center on Saturday, October 15. Serving as an undercard bout on the Believe It Or Not card, Garcia did just enough to claim each of the ten scores aside from the opening stanza, inflicting a fifth defeat onto Holt.

The opening round was fairly even as both fighters landed a similar amount of shots (eight) but Holt returned to his corner with the ten score because of his added power. One of the most significant punches of the fight arrived in the second round as Garcia sent an accurate right cross onto Holt’s jawline.
In the third round, Holt attacked the body as he sought to sap the youthful exuberance out of the undefeated prospect’s lungs. Possessing the accuracy and the work-rate, though, Garcia took control of the fight as Holt began paying respect to his opponent’s right, one of which was crunched onto the top of Holt’s cranium.
In rounds three and four there was a noticeable difference between the punch expenditure of both fighters as Holt, at 30, looked for the big punch that could either knock Garcia down or finish the fight outright. He also only fought in spurts. Garcia, 23, on the other hand, put his punches together and possessed that greater round-winning work-rate.
Noting this, trainer Buddy McGirt implored his ward Holt to ‘let his punches go’ before sending him back to fight in the sixth round. Garcia, again, had the upper edge, though, as he landed a good straight right, a solid left hook and body punches either side of Holt’s midsection.
In round seven, a swelling continued to grow over Holt’s left eye and, when motioning into the inside, Garcia worked it over in an attempt to aggravate it. In both rounds seven and eight, perhaps because of his eye closing, Holt upped his rate of pace and doubled up on his jabs and one-two moves.
Attacking the body then the head, Holt found good success with his hook selection in the ninth round. In the final minute of the stanza, Garcia began throwing bombs – most notably, the looping right hand over the top while Holt had his left mitt low.
In the tenth round, Holt’s success was incredibly minimal. He had great power but he landed so infrequently that it was virtually redundant. In the penultimate round, Garcia struck Holt with a marvelous one-two move that was concluded with the right hand, however, he failed to follow up on his success and instead allowed Holt a respite from the pain. In the final moments of the round, Garcia showed great accuracy that was converse in nature to Holt.
Holt’s insistence on walking into Garcia’s area whilst the Philadelphian kept his hands busy ensured that he was forced to take a number of clean punches on either the chin. Holt may have had the power but he rarely made use of it compared to the much busier Garcia.

With the win, Garcia preserved his undefeated record. He now stands at 22-0-0, 14ko. Holt suffered the fifth defeat of his career and slumped to 27-5-0, 15ko.