Saturday, September 28 turned out to be an electrifying evening, as Glen “Jersey Boy” Tapia won his 20th professional fight against Elco Garcia via fifth-round technical knockout from the Bally’s Events Center.
The unbeaten Junior Middleweight contender from Passaic, New Jersey improved his record to a perfect 20-0, 12 KOs.
The 42-yr old Garcia (27-9, 13 KOs) didn’t pose much of a threat to Tapia, but was game.
Tapia spent the fight counter punching and landing huge shots and finally floored Garcia in the fifth round with a series of body punches.
Garcia did get back to his feet, but it was too late as referee Benjy Esteves had seen enough and stopped the fight with one second left in the round.
Undercard
Tapia’s stablemate, Julian “Hammer Hands” Rodriguez made his long awaited pro debut and what a debut it was.
It took Rodriguez only 51 seconds of the first round to put his opponent away. Kevin Benson took a hard overhand right to the head and went down like a ton of bricks near his own corner and didn’t attempt to get up as referee Steve Smoger counted to 10.
Rodriguez was calm from the opening bell, not seen in many fighters making their pro debut, which allowed him to pick apart his opponent before dropping him.
Jesse “Hard Work” Hart didn’t have to work hard for his bout against Terrence Wilson, as he ended the bout at 1:57 of the first round.
From the opening bell, Hart stalked Wilson like a hawk, pounding him with everything he had. You could see in Hart’s eyes that he becomes a beast when he enters the ring, as his eyes do not leave his pray.
Hart knocked down Wilson three times with the third time being a huge left uppercut that caught Wilson and put him down for good. Hart is definitely an up-and-coming, can’t miss fighter out of Philadelphia, PA.
All photos by Top Rank/PeterAmador.
