Hector Luis Garcia (14-0) capped off his 2021 campaign with a comfortable unanimous decision victory over Isaac Avelar (17-4) last month at The Armory in Minneapolis. The bout was part of a FS1 broadcast that preceded the Premier Boxing Champions on FOX card that was headlined by David Morrell-Alantez Fox. The final scores were 78-73 on all three scorecards.  

The fight started off on the wrong foot for Garcia, as he was dropped by a right hand in the first round. He wasn’t badly hurt and was able to sweep the rest of the rounds.

“From my point of view, I hit the canvas in the first round but I wasn’t hurt. I wasn’t able to get in my rhythm in the first but the knockdown was mostly because I was off balance,” Garcia told BoxingScene.com about the fight.

“I think Avelar is a warrior but he didn’t want to take too many risks after the first knockdown.  He knew it wasn’t an easy fight against me and he knew one knockdown wouldn’t make the difference if I was able to win the rest of the rounds which I did.”

The 30-year-old Dominican Republic native only fought twice this year and hopes to be more active this year. He feels like he is in the prime of his career and that he can set himself up for a world title shot in 2022.

“I hope to be more active in the upcoming years so I don’t get rusty.  I want to stay sharp and on top of my game,” said Garcia who felt his long camp and inactivity hindered him in scoring a knockout.

“The way I see it is that I had a chance to knock Avelar out but I couldn’t continue to pressure him. I was in good condition physically but after being in camp for five months, my legs wouldn’t react how I wanted so I just took the fight round by round and won each round, one at a time.”

Send questions or comments to ringsidewriter@gmail.com. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ringsidewriter