Reid struggles in victory

Dean Juipe

Monday, Nov. 27, 2000 | 10:20 a.m.

The beeline through David Reid's dressing room led straight to a mirror that was propped in the far corner.

It was time for a little self-examination and Reid might not have liked what was there for him to see. His habitually bad left eye was bloodied and had considerably worsened over the course of what turned out to be a grueling 10-round fight with Kirino Garcia.

Reid, America's last Olympic gold medalist, won his nationally televised Sunday night fight at the Regent Las Vegas, but he came out of it looking anything but pretty. Tack on the crowd's jeers at the judges' decision and Reid, fighting for the first time at 160 pounds and for the first time after a loss, faces an uncertain future.

He's polished and quick, yet his power remains in question and his eye appears as if it may never fully recover. After showering he was off to Valley Hospital for some mandated repairs.

"He was going straight for my left eye," Reid lamented, first to his cornermen as they watched him in the mirror and later to reporters. "All my opponents go for my eye. I saw him doing it in this fight from the very first round."

If Garcia had been busier or more committed early in the fight, he would have come away with an upset win. Instead, he lost by scores of 96-93, 95-93 and 95-94 in what was an unpopular decision for many who were sitting ringside.

The Sun had Reid winning 95-94. Garcia won each of the last three rounds and was credited with a 10th-round knockdown that was half-punch, half-shove. But prior to the sixth round he did little if anything to advance his cause.

"I was hitting him with some clean shots," Reid said, "but he caught up with me in the late rounds. For some reason, my legs were gone.

"I kind of petered out."

Reid, 27, upped his record to 15-1 and took home $30,000. But he remains stuck on seven knockouts and has now fought 74 consecutive rounds without ending a fight in decisive fashion. The improved power he predicted would accompany his ascension to the middleweight division just wasn't there. He hit Garcia frequently and sometimes with everything he had, yet he never had the journeyman in serious trouble.

Garcia, 31, fell to 28-21-1 and was paid $20,000.

For Reid, it was a fight that will beg for additional insight.

"I'm going to sit down and see what problems I had and evaluate how I fought," he promised. "I need to work on my mistakes."

Another long-standing concern, his lack of stamina, obviously needs to be addressed.

"I was in shape," he said. "I just had a lot of ring rust. It was a tough 10 rounds and near the end he was more determined."

This was Reid's first fight since a March loss to Felix Trinidad and his first since his droopy left eyelid had supposedly been fixed. But the eye was sagging even before Garcia warmed up, and it was bleeding badly after Garcia smacked him in the ninth.