By Jeff Zimmerman at ringside

Rising middleweight sensation, Elijah Garcia (16-0, 13 KOs) from Phoenix, AZ, stopped the gritty Armando Resendiz (14-2, 10 KOs) out of Nayarit, Mexico in a barn burner by technical knockout in round eight of the scheduled ten round WBA title eliminator.

In an action packed first round, Resendiz started out strong with straight right hands to the head of the southpaw Gacia. Garcia then wobbled Resendiz with a straight left on the chin, but he was unable to finish off the tough Mexican. The firefight continued into round two, with both guys in the pocket toe to toe. Garcia opened the round with a right, left combo and Resendiz uncorked multiple right hands. In rounds three and four, Garcia snapped the head back of Resendiz multiple times, but Resendiz scored with his own shots to the head and body. Round five, Garica again snapped Resendiz head back, but not enough to deter Resendiz from coming forward where he landed his own solid shots. By round six, Garcia seemed to have more zip on his punches and appeared in control. By the end of round seven, both showed they were still game as they had a wild exchange to close out the round as both landed power shots to the head. But finally in round eight, Garcia landed a counter right hand to the body and then upstairs on the chin that put Resendiz on the canvas for the first time in the fight. Garcia smelled blood in the water and went for kill as he unleashed a flurry of shots with Resendiz backed in a corner, when referee Tony Weeks jumped in and waved it off. Official time of stoppage 1:23 of round eight.

At only 20, Garcia looks like a future star with this breakout performance on Showtime PPV and on the undercard of boxing’s biggest star in Canelo.

He comes from a fighting family, as both his dad, grandfather and even his great grandfather boxed. He put on a great performance against a fighter in Resendiz, who was coming off his own breakout performance in his last fight when he stopped the former 154-pound champ in Jarrett Hurd back in March.

But Garcia, a self-proclaimed Raider fan, felt right at home under the Vegas lights, where his beloved Raiders now call home. With his hometown of Phoenix right around the corner, we should expect more big fights for Garcia in the fight capital of the world.