Ricardo Lucio Galvan trained day and night, every single day for the past six months in preparation for fighting his first professional boxing match.

He patiently waited for his opportunity as promoters turned him down because of lack of experience. Last Friday night, at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center, he was finally able to receive his opportunity to showcase his hunger, passion, and boxing craft.

For the greater part of a year, Lucio Galvan asked for promoters for a mere four round match. However, all he really needed was 55 seconds.

Under the bright lights and in front of a crowd of around 1000 spectators, he embraced the spotlight and shook off any semblance of the butterflies.

All boxers cope with pressure in different ways. Some are reserved in pre-fight preparations while others are more outwardly outspoken. Lucio Galvan is the latter.

In the locker room, as he fired off on the mitts to warm up with his trainer Robert Stovall, he would constantly yell, “easy work!”, as he ran off lightning quick combination after another.

With one of the biggest entourages of the night as student publications looked to document his fight, he would constantly turn to the cameras and give his signature wink as he was dancing or shadow boxing.

However, his bravado doesn’t stem from cockiness but rather from strong belief in his preparation and training.

“It only really took five or 10 seconds to get rid of the feeling of finally being a professional,” Lucio Galvan said. “After that, I felt really comfortable in the ring. I felt like it was my territory and I had to defend my hometown.”

A quick left hook to the chin stunned his opponent, Benjamin Amezquita out of Portland, Oregon. After Lucio Galvan sensed blood, he went in for the kill. Blinding and thunderous flurries came from all angles as the young boxer, a sophomore at the University of Nevada and a Reno native, unrelentlessly put on the pressure on his opponent.

Amezquita, who was also debuting in the professional ranks was a taller and rangier opponent. However, that reach disparity proved to be no match for the speed of Lucio Galvan as he was able to attack the interior with ease and forced the referee to call the fight.

Lucio Galvan wanted to leave no doubt about his boxing prowess as he wanted to impress the hometown crowd as well as taking the decision out of the judges hands, with one of them being the notorious Adelaide Byrd, who most recently garnered criticism for her 118-110 pro-Canelo Alvarez score in his superfight against Gennady Golovkin.

“Picture perfect,” Lucio Galvan’s trainer, Stovall said. “You could not ask for a better fight. I was predicting him to knock him out in the second round. I’ve been saying that if he went out there and did what he was supposed to do, he’d knocked him out and that’s what he did.”

As far as what’s next for the Lucio Galvan, he just wants to stay active and continue on with his training regimen in hopes of keeping pace with his plan to fight eight fights in the upcoming year.