It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective enough for Andres Cortes, who frustrated Eridson Garcia over the course of 10 rounds en route to a unanimous decision victory Sunday at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“It was not perfect. I didn’t knock him out,” Cortes said after winning the lightweight main event of Zuffa Boxing 05 by scores of 97-92, 96-93 and 95-94. “They told me they was going to take me to school. I think I took their ass to school.” 

It was a tactical and tentative affair early on. Garcia prefers to counterpunch, and Cortes would of course prefer not to get countered. So Cortes spent the first nine minutes trying to catch Garcia off guard with lots of feints, or by moving away and then rushing in with an attack. Garcia usually avoided those rushes, but he didn’t often catch Cortes with counters, nor did his leads score with regularity.

Indeed, through three rounds, only 23 total punches had landed combined between the two men, according to CompuBox. 

Referee Thomas Taylor took a point from Garcia for holding about 45 seconds into the fourth. Afterward, some actual in-close action took place – a welcome arrival – though there was also still a lot of clinching and wrestling during the round.

As the match reached its halfway point, Cortes’ trainer (who is his brother) told him to bring the fighting inside in order to make Garcia uncomfortable. Garcia’s corner, meanwhile, warned that he had dropped every round so far. Cortes did get inside in the final minute of the sixth, throwing until Garcia clinched for some relief.

Garcia had some success boxing and countering in the seventh. He had a giant hole to dig out of, however, and it was even deeper given the point deduction earlier on. Cortes scored with a couple right hands in the final minute.

Cortes circled for the first half of the eighth, seemingly resting before the final stretch, and Garcia obliged by not pressing the action. Despite mostly taking the round off, Cortes was the one landing the better punches. 

Garcia showed no desperation in the final rounds. Although he wasn’t giving up, he wasn’t going all out either. Not that Cortes would let him. He’d negated and essentially defused Garcia.

CompuBox stats showed Cortes going 95 of 366 while Garcia was just 67 of 387.

Afterward, Cortes spoke of wanting to fight for the Zuffa Boxing championship at 135lbs. One possible opponent is Mark Magsayo, who triumphed in the co-feature with a fifth-round stoppage of Feargal McCrory.

Cortes, a 28-year-old from Las Vegas, improved to 25-0 (13 KOs). Among his other victories since 2024 were a fourth-round stoppage of the 20-1-1 Bryan Chevalier; a decision over the 23-2 Abraham Nova; a near-shutout against the 14-1-1 Salvador Jimenez; and a fourth-round knockout against the 13-4-1 Derlyn Hernandez-Gerarldo. 

Garcia, a 31-year-old from the Dominican Republic who lives in Houston, dropped to 23-2 (14 KOs). This defeat ended a six-fight winning streak that followed his shocking one-round loss to Jordan White in 2023. Among Garcia’s victories during that run were a unanimous decision over the 17-1 William Foster III in 2024 and a split decision over the 9-0 Taiga Imanaga this past December.

David Greisman, who has covered boxing since 2004, is on Twitter @FightingWords2. David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” is available on Amazon.