Il Nuovo Postiglione - Garcia keeps WBC welterweight title by stopping Benn

Garcia delivered a hammering right hand to the chin that dropped Benn to the canvas 45 seconds into the second round and followed with punishing flurries of punches until referee Thomas Taylor stopped the fight after one minute and 25 seconds of the second round.

"I'm just happy," Garcia said. "I feel at peace. I've got that joy and that peace and it feels great."

Garcia improved to 26-2 with his 21st victory inside the distance and denied Benn, in his first world title bout, a chance to become a world champion like his father, England's Nigel Benn.

The fight was at T-Mobile Arena, where Garcia won the crown in February with a unanimous decision victory over US countryman Mario Barrios.

The 28-year-old American was defending his 147-pound (66.7kg) division title for the first time.

Benn, a 29-year-old Englishman, is the son of a former middleweight and super middleweight world champion. He fell to 25-2 after coming off an April unanimous decision victory over American Regis Prograis at London's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

That's the same venue where last November, Benn avenged his only prior loss by taking a unanimous decision from England's Chris Eubank Jr.

Both fighters were moving quickly and intensely trading punches from the start until Garcia landed his stunning blow. Benn rose but was battered for the fight's final few seconds.

Garcia called out two rival welterweight champions, unbeaten American Devin Haney of the World Boxing Organization and Honduran-American Teofimo Lopez, the World Boxing Association champion.

"Where are you at?" Garcia said. "It's unification time."

S.Maiolo--INP