by David P. Greisman

Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York - Mikey Garcia had to shake off some rust after two and a half years of inactivity. But once he found his rhythm, he found his target, and that target, Elio Rojas, found the canvas.

Garcia put Rojas down four times in the span of five rounds for a technical knockout victory. Rojas won the first two rounds on all three judges’ scorecards. And then Garcia took control.

The first knockdown came in the third round, when Garcia caught Rojas with a right hand that had him on his way to the mat before Garcia’s follow-up left hook could land. Rojas was up at eight and tried to settle the score with aggression rather than protect himself. Rojas landed a few, but Garcia had a pair of lefts land well. Rojas continued to try to fight Garcia off, only to get caught with a right hand as he was pulling back. Rojas went down hard but beat the count once again.

Rojas continued to put up a spirited effort. His power wasn’t making a dent in Garcia when punches landed. Garcia’s power, however, was evident.

Another Garcia right hand near the halfway point of the fifth sent Rojas down for the third knockdown of the night. Rojas was up at seven but looking down, yet he continued to battle, refusing to tie up and go out any way but firing. Yet after the fourth and final knockdown — Rojas rose, listened to the referee and then shook his head to indicate that he didn’t want to continue.

Garcia landed 53 of 126 shots on the night, a 42 percent connect rate, including 38 of 76 power shots, landing half of those he threw. Rojas was 47 of 168, a 28 percent connect rate, including 33 of 77 power shots, or 43 percent. That’s not bad for Rojas. But he was outgunned. He couldn’t avoid enough of Garcia’s fire, and he couldn’t stand up to Garcia’s firepower.

Garcia, previous a titleholder at 126 and 130, has said he plans to campaign at lightweight now that he’s back. He was 138 for this bout.

He’d been on the sideline for so long as he sought to extricate himself from his promoter at the time, Top Rank. He’s now back in the spotlight. This win in the co-feature of a Showtime broadcast will likely lead to bigger things.

The 28-year-old from Oxnard, California, is now 35-0 with 29 KOs.

Rojas also had been quite inactive due to his own business disagreements. He fought once in 2008, captured a featherweight world title in his sole fight in 2009 — outpointing Takahiro Ao at featherweight — and defended it once in 2010. Then he had a non-title bout in his sole appearance in 2011 and lost his title by decision to Jhonny Gonzalez in 2012. Then he didn’t fight again for 28 months, returning in August 2014, and had been away for nearly two years before this fight.

The 33-year-old from the Dominican Republic is 24-3 with 14 KOs.

Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com