Duarte Thinks His Victory May Have Proved a Point

The most important thing Venice’s Frankie Duarte feels he won at the Forum Tuesday night was respect.

Oh sure, he’s well aware that his sixth-round knockout of George Garcia in a semifinal round of the Forum’s bantamweight tournament qualifies him for a July shot at Jesus Salud, the tournament title and the $50,000 prize that goes with it.

But Duarte had other things on his mind after Tuesday’s fight.

“This makes my comeback worthwhile,” Duarte said, “just for the respect that goes with it. Before, people would as soon spit at me as say hi .”

That was back in the days when the 31-year-old Duarte (38-6-1, 29 knockouts) was an alcoholic. Three years ago, he tossed away his bottle, picked up his gloves and is 7-1-1 under the guidance of the Ten Goose Boxing Club of North Hollywood.

Tuesday’s fight was stopped at 2:15 of the sixth round due to a cut over the left eye of the 28-year-old Garcia (25-4-2) of Westminster.

It was Garcia who threw most of the punches in the early rounds.

“He’s very awkward,” Duarte said, “so I took my time to figure him out. Finally, I decided if I throw punches from all angles, something will connect.”

That something was a straight right in the fourth round of the scheduled 10-rounder that opened up the cut and eventually closed out Garcia’s hopes of advancing in the tournament. Duarte dominated from then on in front of the crowd of 4,356.

Earlier, in an elimination bout for a Forum heavyweight tournament, Eric Curry (12-1) won a close but unanimous 10-round decision over Dee Collier (14-4).

Irving Mitchell (29-4, 15 KOs) won the vacated California featherweight championship by stopping Ramon Rico (24-6, 21 KOs) in the fifth round of their scheduled 12-round bout.