Two exciting boxing matches were lined up for Saturday, July 14, with the British heavyweight grudge match between David Haye and Dereck Chisora, and the Junior Welterweight showdown between Amir Khan and Danny Garcia. Neither bout disappointed, as Haye and Garcia each scored an early, exciting TKO win, injecting some much needed energy into the mostly stagnant and depressing recent boxing scene.
First came Haye vs. Chisora. Haye, the two-division champion, was coming back from a year of inactivity, and was giving up more than 30 pounds to his domestic counterpart, Del Boy Chisora.
Haye looked better than ever though, and never allowed a complacent-seeming Chisora into the fight. After controlling the first four sessions, he sent Chisora down twice in the 5th, forcing the referee to halt the action.
Haye disgraced himself when he fought Wladimir Klitschko, and put forth a miserable attempt at winning, but a lot of those bad memories of have been erased with this impressive outing. It was a huge knockout win, and a great feather in his cap, and he's now in place for a title shot against either Alexander Povetkin or Vitali Klitschko.
Khan vs. Garcia was different, as Khan was the fighter who established himself early. In fact, "King" Khan seemed absolutely dominant for the majority of the first three rounds. Garcia looked slow and out of place in comparison, and Khan was landing forceful, crisp shots and combinations.
Garcia changed all of that though at the end of the 3rd round, landing a thudding left hook under the ear that floored Khan, and left him badly wobbled. Garcia picked up where he left off in the 4th, and looked for the stoppage.
To his credit, Khan has a ton of heart, and great fighting instincts. He makes for fun fights, and he doesn't back away from a challenge. All of that worked against him though, as instead of holding and looking to survive, he simply tried to fight back and winged away, and as such ended up crashing to the canvas yet again. He beat the count but the referee rightfully waved off the action.
So it was an eventful and exciting day to be a boxing fan, with two big fights and two exciting stoppage wins.
David Haye returned to the scene, and looks ready to make some noise. Now more than ever, a fight with him against Klitschko the Elder seems intriguing. And Danny Garcia emerges as perhaps the top dog in the crowded Junior Welterweight division, scoring a massive upset against Khan, who seems eternally destined to stall his own career track by looking ahead instead of focusing on the here and now.
Sources : HBO, EPIX, Khan-Garcia round by round , Haye-Chisora round by round
Jake Emen runs the boxing news website ProBoxing-Fans.com. You can find more of his writing, along with interviews, rankings and breaking news stories at the site, or you can follow ProBoxing-Fans.com on Twitter, @ProBoxingFans.
