FRESNO, Calif. — According to BetMGM, Sandor Martin was a +900 underdog coming into Saturday's fight against Mikey Garcia.
He'd never fought in the United States and had never fought against anyone the caliber of the former four-division world champion. But, none of that mattered to the Spaniard as he came into Garcia's home state and pulled a massive upset to win by majority decision (95-95, 97-93, 97-93) at Chukchansi Park. DAZN News had it scored 96-94 for Martin.
"Mikey is a legend. It's a pleasure to share the ring with him," Martin said through a translator in his post-fight interview with Chris Mannix. "This is the biggest moment of my career."
Despite not much action in the opening round, Martin (39-2, 13 KOs) came out as the aggressor and took the fight to Garcia. He outboxed Garcia from the jump, used his footwork and had better counterpunching.
The power went out to begin the second round, but it was quickly restored. But that brief pause in the action didn't help Garcia, who looked sluggish, and would get Martin into the corner but could not pull the trigger more often than not.
In the ninth round and down on the judges scorecards, Garcia started to land combinations in bunches and stunned Martin for a quick moment. The tenth and final round was an action-packed round with both guys slugging it out to the bell.
Garcia (40-2, 30 KOs) fought for the first time since a February 2020 unanimous decision win over Jessie Vargas. However, he didn't blame the layoff for his performance and would be interested in a rematch.
“I would definitely consider the rematch," Garcia told Mannix. "I think two more rounds could have made the difference. I thought I was coming on better in the later rounds. But there’s no excuses. That’s the way it is.”
Here is what happened at Mikey Garcia vs. Sandor Martin.