Sandor Martin Upsets Mikey Garcia

Former four-weight world champion Mikey Garcia was in action Saturday night and was shocked by Sandor Martin losing by majority decision in what will be one of the biggest upsets in boxing of 2021.

The final scorecards for this fight were 95-95 but were overruled 97-93 x 2 in favor of Martin, who gave Garcia all he could handle in this contest.

The main event stemming from Chukchansi Park in Fresno, California that aired on the streaming service DAZN played out as many expected Garcia in this “stay-busy” contest and cruised in front of what was tabbed as a crowd of 8,000 at the home of the minor league baseball home of the Fresno Grizzlies.

As for the fight itself, Mikey Garcia came in on a tractor with 70 farmers, and once the bell rang, it was clear that Garcia was looking to get a few rounds in after nearly a twenty-month layoff. There was a blackout in the second round with the lights going out, and once the lights came back, Garcia pretty much boxed using his 1-2 pressuring Martin and keeping him close and in firing range.

Lights out… literally! Stadium briefly goes dark early in round two. @RGMPROMO pays the electric bill, lights back on and action resumes #GarciaMartin

— Jake Donovan (@JakeNDaBox) October 17, 2021

That was the only action in the opening rounds of this contest. The broadcast noted that Martin was not throwing his jab very often but was sharp in spots, but his plan of outboxing Garcia wasn’t looking very likely early on in this ten-round contest. By the fourth round, Garcia was still trying to get something going against Martin and was lowkey getting caught with some shots, albeit nothing very fearful or dangerous.

Blood was slowly trickling out of the nose of Garcia as the fifth round was going by, and this fight was still at the pretty mundane pace from the opening bell. Martin showed signs of fatigue as the bell started in the sixth but was still able to land some nice shots on Garcia as this fight felt moved on.

By the eighth round of this catchweight fight, It felt like Garcia was losing the battle as Martin could maintain his gameplan with Garcia not being able to land anything. It wasn’t a firefight but a tactical bout with Garcia looking down on the cards and on pace to be on one of the biggest upsets in boxing this year. Martin came into this bout as a relative unknown and a double-digit underdog coming in.

As the final rounds commenced, Garcia still had trouble with Martin but did have his best round of the fight in the ninth.

One of the fighters targeted next for Garcia was former junior welterweight champion Regis Prograis, who, like many watching, wasn’t overly impressed with Garcia’s effort early on. All of this is moot as Prograis may need to be get ready for Martin instead down the road.