Fernie Garcia suffers TKO loss to Hyder Amil at UFC Vegas 86

LAS VEGAS, Nevada — El Paso’s Fernie Garcia was handed his fourth career loss in the UFC after he suffered a second-round TKO (strikes) loss to Hyder Amil on the prelim card of UFC Vegas 86 on Saturday.

Garcia, who took this fight on eight days’ notice, stepping in for Melsik Baghdasaryan, moved up a weight class to take on Amil at featherweight.

Garcia and Amil had an explosive opening round. After surviving a barrage of punches from Amil, Garcia turned around and dropped Amil with a counter left hook. Garcia’s momentum didn’t last long though as Amil came back and did a lot of damage to Garcia to finish off the round.

All three judges: Mike Bell, Sal D’Amato, and Junichiro Kamijo scored the first round a 10-8 round in favor of Amil.

In the second round, Amil dominated Garcia from the start. Despite a valiant effort, Garcia could not stop Amil heavy kicks and strikes. Referee Mark Smith stepped in to stop the action and saved a bloodied, beaten Garcia at 2:12 of Round 2 of the bout.

Amil picked up the win in his UFC debut.

Meanwhile, Garcia remains winless in his UFC career and dropped to 0-4 while fighting for the organization.

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