Garcia Defeats Amir Khan to Claim WBA Title

Danny Garcia is still undefeated…

The 24-year-old Puerto Rican professional boxer beat heavy favorite Amir Khan in the fourth round to stay undefeated and add another super lightweight belt to his collection on Saturday night.

Danny Garcia

“I always knew I would win this fight,” said Garcia. “I needed a great fighter in front of me to show how great a fighter I am. Now everyone knows.”

Khan bruised Garcia early, even opening a small cut above his eye. But Garcia sent Khan to the canvas in the third round with a left hook, although the 2004 Olympic silver medalist for Britain was able to beat the count.

At the start of the fourth, though, Garcia swarmed him with power punches, knocking him down twice quickly. Khan got back to his feet each time, but the referee ended the bout at 2:28 of the round.

“It wasn’t my night,” said Khan. “I was coming in with my hands down and Danny took advantage of that. He countered very well against me.”

Danny Garcia

Garcia now has the World Boxing Association (WBA) title to go along with his World Boxing Council (WBC) one. He improved his record to 24-0 with 15 knockouts while Khan fell to 26-3 with 18 KOs.

Khan was originally scheduled to face Lamont Peterson on May 19th in a rematch of their December 10th bout in which Peterson took a 12-round split decision to win Khan’s WBA and IBF titles.

Just days before the bout, Peterson tested positive for synthetic testosterone.

The fight was canceled and he was stripped of his WBA title which was later restored to Khan.

Garcia, who beat Erik Morales for the WBC title on March 24 agreed to fight Khan and took full advantage of the opportunity, defeating the popular fighter in spectacular fashion.

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