Highlights: Garcia and Linares score big knockouts to set up summer showdown

Photo by Tom Hogan/Golden Boy/Getty Images

Ryan Garcia and Jorge Linares scored the big KOs tonight in Anaheim, and could meet one another next.

Ryan Garcia and Jorge Linares did what they wanted to do tonight, impressing the audience in Anaheim, and the two could be headed for a July showdown at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, though that’s not fully confirmed just yet.

Garcia knocked out Francisco Fonseca in the first round of tonight’s main event, and Linares drilled Carlos Morales in the fourth round of the co-feature.

Here’s Garcia’s KO:

Here’s the slow motion, which is so f’n sick it’ll make you do an emoji:

YouTube celebrity and undefeated professional boxer Jake Paul just couldn’t believe it. “Wow,” he seemed to remark:

And here’s Linares’ knockout:

A fight between the 21-year-old Garcia (20-0, 17 KO) and the 34-year-old Linares (47-5, 29 KO) would be really interesting. It’s a matchup of a talented and exciting young fighter, one his promoter (and DAZN) have high hopes for, against a still highly-skilled former three-division titleholder who obviously didn’t look washed up tonight.

It’s a risky matchup, the sort we see too rarely in boxing. Fight fans will obviously want this, and only Garcia against someone like Devin Haney would really please anyone otherwise at this point. Either way, Garcia has to step up next; he’s said too many times that he wants to, Oscar De La Hoya is pushing for it, and fans and detractors alike want to see it. Anything else like what we’ve already seen from Ryan in terms of opposition will be harshly rejected at this point.