Nineteen-year-old middleweight opponent Elijah Garcia survived a slow start by beating Kevin Salgado by a unanimous decision in a 10-round match on the Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia card on Saturday in Las Vegas.
The official scores are 97-92, 97-92 and 95-94. Boxing Junkie scored the goal 96-93, six innings into four.
Salgado (15-2-1, 10 KOs) got off to a good start, outpacing the relatively less aggressive Garcia (15-0, 12 KOs) in the first three rounds, mostly with hard body shots and Exactly.
However, Garcia started picking up pace in Round 4 and controlled the rest of the game to draw cards.
Southpaw did it both from the outside, after his jab with straight jabs. And he also did on the inside, landing quickly combining two, three punches.
Salgado lost points in the 7th round because he kept hitting low, but that was the deciding factor.
Garcia, who turned 20 on Wednesday, is entering her second scheduled 10th round. And it was his first time fighting beyond the sixth round.
