Loreto Garza (born May 23, 1962 in Sacramento, California) is a former American boxer.
Garza started boxing amateur at 18 years old and did it for three years. He won the Golden Gloves all three years and was also on the US boxing team.
Garza turned pro in 1983 at the age of 21. In 1988, he won the WBC Americas light welterweight championship with a spectacular first-round knockout of former world champion Harry Arroyo. Later that year Garza knocked out former world champion Charlie Brown (boxer) (other wise known as "Choo Choo" Brown) in four rounds. In 1989, Garza, with a single right hand in the 7th round, knocked former world champion Joe Manley out cold. Later that year Garza won a unanimous decision in a 12-round battle to win the USBA championship over #1 ranked contender Frankie Warren; Garza fought the last 5 rounds with his left eye swelled shut. Many boxing annals argue that Garza vs. Warren should have been the fight of the year. Then on August 17, 1990, with only two weeks' notice Garza flew to Nice, France and won the WBA light welterweight world title by majority decision over Juan Coggi, Garza with a beautiful display of counter punching. He came back to his hometown of Sacramento and defended his world title against former world champion Vinny Pazienza. Garza out-smarted and out-boxed Pazienza and had his face battered, Pazienza was being a dirty fighter and was frustrated throughout the fight and in the 11th round Pazienza picks up Garza and tried to slam him in the ring, so the referee disqualified Pazienza. The following year Garza lost the belt to Edwin Rosario via 3rd round TKO. In the fight, Garza was knocked down twice in the 1st and twice in the 3rd. Garza had fight 3 more times after that and won them by knockout, and was promised another world title shot, but it seemed like all the world champions would duck when it came to Garza. He retired in 1993.
Record: 32 wins, 2 losses, 1 draw, 28 knockouts
| Preceded by Juan Martin Coggi |
WBA Light Welterweight Champion 17 Aug 1990–14 Jun 1991 |
Succeeded by Edwin Rosario |