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08/26/2006 Archived Entry: "Garnica Pulls Upset over Maussa!"
Garnica Pulls Upset over Maussa!
By Laz Izada
Photo by Dalia Duran
Garnica (right) jars Maussa in his thrilling upset victory
Live boxing returned to the Miccosukee Resort and Gaming convention center in southwest Miami last night. As Tuto Zabala Jr’s All Star Boxing, Inc presented eight exciting bouts. With Boxeo Telemundo broadcasting live, the main and co-main event. The Main-Event was a light welterweight showdown between 34 year old Colombian Carlos “The Apostle” Maussa 20-4(18KO’S) versus 31 year old Manuel “ Marro” Garnica from Mexico 20-5(11KO’S). The 12 round match was for the WBC Latino Light Welterweight Title and the WBA’s Fedcaribe Light Welterwieght Title. One unique aspect about this bout is that the WBC and WBA does not have world champions at light welterweight . So the winner of these regional titles would surely move up in the rankings.
Maussa ranked #5 by the WBA and #15by the IBF was the WBA champ for several months last year after he KO’d Vivian Harris in the seventh round on June 25th, 2005. He then lost his title in November of last year to Brit sensation Ricky Hatton in England. This was his first fight since that lost.
Garnica which is not ranked by any of the sanctioning bodies was taking on his first fight this year. He had a lost to Michel Rosales 11-0(10KO’S) last year. Previously he had been on a four year lay off.On his boxing resume he has a majority decision victory over Gabriel Ruelas 49-7(25KO’S) that took place in 1999.
To everybody’s surprise Garnica was winning the early rounds in convincible fashion over Maussa . He was landing more punches and showing more intensity. Maussa which did come back to win the 5th and 6th rounds lacked aggressiveness and fought with his arms down on several occasions through out the bout. Garnica came back strong from the 7th round on and Maussa needed a knockout in the last round to win. The knockout by Maussa didn’t come and Garnica pulled the upset by unanimous decision scores of 115-113,116-112,and 117-111.
