Boeing Center at Tech Port in San Antonio, Texas - Mirco Cuello, a 2020 Argentine Olympian with a fun, aggressive style, pounded out a tough, 10-round unanimous decision win against the willing Rudy Garcia in their featherweight bout, handing Garcia his first loss. Cuello won by three scores of 99-90, 99-90 and 99-90 to improve to 13-0 with 11 KOs as Garcia dropped to 13-1-1 with 2 KOs. 

Currently ranked No. 4 by the WBA’s featherweight rankings, Cuello bested his sixth undefeated fighter, though he failed to stop his sixth straight opponent.

It wasn’t for a lack of trying.

Cuello sliced open cuts over Garcia’s left eye and over his nose with stinging jabs and muscular left hooks and loaded up on heavy shots that repeatedly found their mark. Cuello landed 35% of his jabs and 35% of his power punches and doubled up Garcia in body punches landed 53-24.

“That was the toughest opponent I have ever faced,” Cuello said. “This was the first time I’ve been 10 rounds and I learned a lot. I love fighting in the United States and hope to fight again on Showtime soon.”

The bout wasn’t without a little controversy. Garcia appeared to drop Cuello with a short, cuffing left hook with 30 seconds remaining in the third, but referee Jon Schorle allowed the action to continue without calling it a knockdown as Cuello popped up and kept fighting.   

Garcia went down with 52 seconds left in the fifth after absorbing a right to the shoulder. This time, referee Schorle ruled it a knockdown, though a clean shot didn’t seem to land. Cuello followed that up with a punishing left to the body with Garcia of South Central, Los Angeles languishing against the ropes to end the round.