ARLINGTON, Texas _ Now, he's beaten someone. Now, he's headlined a pay-per-view and generated an impressive crowd.
Now, Errol Spence Jr. is the man.
In an overwhelming, punishing display of skills multiplied by physical advantages, Texas' Spence cruised to a dominant victory over Oxnard's Mikey Garcia to retain his International Boxing Federation welterweight belt in front of 47,525 on Saturday night at AT&T Stadium.
Spence (25-0, 21 knockouts) won by unanimous-decision scores of 120-107, 120-108 and 120-108, out-landing the four-division champion Garcia by nearly a five-to-one margin.
"I had the size advantage and I had the reach. Why not use the jab, too?" Spence said. "I give Mikey Garcia a lot of credit for allowing me to put on this performance at Cowboys Stadium."
Spence might return there quickly. Watching ringside was former eight-division champion Manny Pacquiao. Spence spoke to him in the ring and said, "It'd be my honor to fight him next." Pacquiao responded, "Why not?"
The punishment, executed by the champion's left-handed power punches to the head and body, kept Garcia covering and cautious about engaging as Spence timed well-placed, hard lefts to the head.
By the sixth round, Spence was treating Garcia (39-1, 30 KOs) like those he battered in becoming a champion, aiming hard body shots at a reluctant, outmatched foe.
Spence's reach, height and speed advantages were indeed the defining assets that many expected as Garcia sought to move up two divisions, following his lightweight title victory July 28 at Staples Center, to become just the third man in history to own both a featherweight and welterweight belt.
That extra gear that Garcia believed was housed inside him, his extended work with nutritional guru Victor Conte and the years of dedication to the craft that Garcia thought would carry him to triumph, did not.
Sure, there was grit, like his combinations at the close of the ninth round, when he was battered by head and body punches, but it only revealed his heart. It couldn't hide the fact that he belongs at a lower weight.
Garcia acknowledged he had to urge his brother-trainer, Robert Garcia, not to stop the fight at that point.
"I'm sorry I couldn't pull it off. We'll be back," Garcia said.
In the co-main event, David Benavidez (21-0, 18 KOs) battered Las Vegas' J'Leon Love (24-3-1) and finished him just 1 minute 14 seconds into the second round with a vicious combination of blows to the head as Love sought to duck under the ropes.
"I knew it was going to happen," Benavidez said.
The heavy flurry answered the frustration of Benavidez losing the World Boxing Council super-middleweight belt he won in becoming the sport's youngest champion in 2017. He tested positive for cocaine, and Anthony Dirrell proceeded to capture the vacant belt.
Following the victory, Benavidez scanned the stadium and looked for Dirrell, whom he expects to meet in the summer.
"He can't call himself champ until he comes to fight me," Benavidez said. "I'm going to go get that belt back. That's mine."
Former bantamweight champion Luis Nery (29-0, 23 KOs) flashed speed and power that Puerto Rico's McJoe Arroyo (18-3) couldn't contain in getting knocked down four times before failing to answer the bell on the advice of his corner after the fourth round.
Nery, making his U.S. debut, satisfied those who've compared him to Pacquiao.
"I'm happy they make comparisons between me and Manny Pacquiao, and I'm even happier that he's here to see me fight," Nery said.
Former heavyweight title challenger Chris Arreola (38-5-1, 33 KOs) of Riverside opened the Fox pay-per-view with a convincing victory by third-round technical knockout over Haiti's Jean Pierre Augustin.
