Garza Uses New Approach to Win Decision at Forum

After watching his fighter win a unanimous 10-round decision over Dwight Pratchett at the Forum on Thursday night, trainer Benny Georgino called his man the “new Jaime Garza.”

Bill Benton, Pratchett’s manager and trainer, had more colorful descriptions of the fight, most of which are not suited to printing in a family newspaper.

“I was robbed,” Pratchett said.

“It was worse than that,” Benton interjected. “It was rape.”

It was close, at least on two scorecards. Judges Vince Delgado and Chuck Hassett both scored the fight 97-94. The third official, Lou Moret, had it 99-91.

For Garza, it was different. No argument there. In winning the first round of a $100,000 featherweight tournament Garza, a former Pacoima resident who now lives in Alhambra, showed a much more conservative look than he had demonstrated in blasting his way to a 44-2 record and 42 knockouts.

That’s what a couple of losses will do to you. Garza, who lost his World Boxing Council super bantamweight title in 1984 on a first-round knockout at the hands of Juan Meza, came back to win four straight, then was knocked out in February by Darryl Thigpen.

“Those losses came because of mistakes I had made,” said Garza, 27. “I would go in carelessly. I had no business getting hit, but I would get mad and lose my temper.

“Tonight, the guy was waiting and waiting for me to walk into something, but it never happened. In all my other fights, I would go straight in. Not tonight. He was waiting to sucker me in to nail me.”

Instead, Garza picked his spots and landed the only three damaging punches of what turned out to be a dull fight. All were solid rights, one delivered in the sixth round, the other two in the 10th. Neither fighter appeared in danger in the fight, which both entered weighing 126 pounds.

Pratchett, a 27-year-old former North American Boxing Federation junior lightweight champion from Houston, saw his record fall to 18-7. He has 13 knockouts.

“I thought I won,” Garza said, “but I was taking this as a workout. I was not trying for the knockout. If it comes, OK. But winning this tournament means a lot to me.”

Said Georgino: “What we want to do is put together the two Jaime Garzas, the punching one and the smart one you saw tonight. When that happens, he’ll be hard to beat.”

It hasn’t happened yet, according to Benton.

The manager-trainer said Garza did his fighter no harm. “He hit my guy one telling blow and Dwight walked right through it. We came out here from Houston and felt we’d get a fair shake. I’ll tell you one thing. I’ve got 15 fighters and I’m never going to come out here again with any of them. I don’t see how these judges can sleep with themselves.”