In front of a full house at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, "King" Ryan Garcia ( 24-1, 20 KO's ) was met with a flurry of punches in the first round from Duarte (26-2-1, 21 KOs), from Parral, Mexico.
It was apparent from this first round that this was going to be a great fight.
With the excited crowd chanting in the background, Duarte began to force his will upon Garcia by trying to walk him down, but Garcia then landed a big right hand to the body of
Duarte. Duarte then landed a hard left hook on Garcia, and although it was blocked, you could see the power in the punch.
Moving forward as Duarte was attempting to corner Garcia in the corner, he slipped in a good right hand as Garcia manuevered his way out of harm's way. Just after this as
Duarte was moving in, he was caught with a fast left hand uppercut that made it look like he ran into a wall.
The second round was similar to the first round as Duarte continued to force the action as
he pressed forward stalking Garcia around the ring throwing very hard punches in hopes of getting in close and landing that big shot. Despite that, Garcia then landed a right hand to Duarte's face, right on the button.
In the third round, Duarte landed a glancing right hand, but Garcia returned the favor and landed a stinging right hand to his head, but Duarte kept moving forward. This was the round where the referee made his first warning to Duarte for hitting on the back of the head.
Toward the last part of the round, Garcia started to let his hands go, and landed two good combinations that slowed Duarte's pace and it was clear that he had won that round.
Garcia also mentioned after the fight, "His power was strong, and I was surprised by his his chin. In the first round I was catching him clean and he looked like he was eating them. In the first and second round, I think he's gonna go by the third, so I had to stop his momentum, and I knew he was a tough fighter."
In the fourth, Duarte's walk-down tactic included lots of wild swinging punches in an attempt to catch Garcia, and several punches landed on the back of Garcia's head and he was warned by the referee again. Duarte must have known he was behind on the cards and he was throwing looping haymakers like he was throwing a baseball.
Duarte seemed to be frustrated by Garcia pawing at him in order to keep him from moving forward and moving around the ring, as the crowd began to boo.
In the fifth round as Duarte continued to march forward, he walked into a huge uppercut by Garcia, and it appeard to rock him, but he took the punch and kept going. Duarte was still met with numerous counter punches by the quick hands of Garcia.
It was in the seventh round where the crowd began to boo as Garcia got on his bicycle as Duarte chased him around the ring. It made Duarte look good as the crowd began to cheer him on in what they thought was a tiring Garcia, but that was not to be.
In the eighth round, Garcia was moving around the ring and Duarte was given another warning for hitting on the back of the head. It was just after this, as Duarte had Garcia in the corner, when Garcia caught him with a lightning left hook, and followed that up with a left and right combination that made Duarte's legs turn into jelly.
Garcia then began landing numerous punches on the shaken Duarte until he put him on the canvas. As Duarte was on one knee as the referee was giving him the long count, he got up, but it was too late, the fight was over!
At the post-fight press conference, Garcia called out Rolando "Rolly" Romero, the 140 pound WBA champion, which may be his next fight for a world title and he said "Let's do it."