Daniel Garcia won by knockout Sunday night at the Auditorio Municipal in Tijuana, Mexico after Elnur Abduraimov remained on his stool.

Garcia, who resides in nearby Ensenada, goes to 15-0, 12 knockouts. 

The fight between Abduraimov, a highly-decorated prospect with over 300 bouts as an amateur, and Garcia was a compelling clash between unbeaten junior lightweights. 

The southpaw Abduraimov was the more-effective fighter, outboxing Garcia and landing the harder punches. During the second round, Abduraimov hurt his left hand after landing a punch. The impact of the blow affected Abduraimov as he only threw jabs.

Sensing Abduraimov’s injury, Garcia became more the aggressor, throwing more punches and putting Abduraimov on the defensive. 

After the seventh round, Abduramimov’s corner, which includes trainer Joel Diaz, made the decision to stop the fight based on the injury and to fight another day.

Garcia is promoted by Zanfer Promotions and was coming off a knockout victory over another unbeaten fighter in Miguel Torres Nunez on December 4. 

Abduraimov (10-1, 9 KOs), who is originally from Gazalkent, Uzbekistan and now resides in Indio, California, had previously fought on July 28, knocking out once-beaten Leonel Moreno in the opening round. Prior to the knockout over Moreno, Abduraimov stopped Manuel Correa, who entered the bout unbeaten, in the second round on May 7.

Aliko Frolov, who co-manages Abduraimov along with Vadim Kornilov, stated the best decision was to look out for the health of their fighter. 

“The plan was to box for the first four-five rounds, then press the action (in the) later rounds,” Frolov told Boxingscene Monday morning. “He hurt his left hand and it was getting worse (with each passing) round. It is what it is. (He) will come back stronger.”

Abduraimov is promoted by World of Boxing and has fought on a handful of Golden Boy Promotions cards. 

In the co-feature, welterweight Dubiel Sanchez of Tijuana stopped Brandon Perez Pena at 10 seconds of the seventh round. Sanchez improves to 19-1-2, 14 KOs.

Perez, who resides in Tlalnepantla, Mexico, drops to 9-4, 5 KOs.

Ruben Aguilar (20-0-1, 17 KOs) of Ensenada and Mexico City’s Ricardo Salas Rodriguez (16-2-1, 11 KOs) fought to a majority decision draw over eight rounds. No scores were announced.

Roniel Iglesias, a 2012 Olympic Gold medalist from Cuba, improved to 3-0, 2 KOs by stopping Eleazar Valenzuela (25-25-6, 19 KOs) in the third round. 

Junior featherweight prospect Arturo Popoca stopped Tijuana’s Edwyn Flores (6-2, 5 KOs) in the second round. Popoca resides in Riverside, California, where he is trained by Robert Garcia.

In a clash of unbeaten heavyweights from Tijuana, Kevin Martinez defeated Francisco Cantabrana Soto (6-1, 5 KOs) by unanimous decision. No scores were announced. Martinez improves to 11-0, 7 KOs). 

Pedro Turcios of Oxnard improved to 7-0-1, 7 KOs by stopping Mexico City’s Martin Albarran (5-1, 2 KOs) in the second round.

Francisco A. Salazar has written for BoxingScene since September 2012 and has covered boxing in Southern California and abroad since 2000. Francisco also covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He can be reached by email at santio89@yahoo.com or on Twitter at FSalazarBoxing