Thurman earns Split Decision nod over Garcia to unify welterweight titles in New York
By Rich Mazon
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 05 Mar 2017
New York - An edgy crowd of 16,533 witnessed the unification showdown between welterweight kingpins Keith Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs) and Danny Garcia (33-0, 19 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Thurman, the WBA champion, outboxed and outworked WBC champ Garcia en route to a debatable Split Decision victory to add Garcia's belt to his waist.
Scores at ringside were 116-112 and 115-113 for the winner while a third judge scored it at 115-113 for Garcia.
Thurman out of Clearwater, Florida started the fight fast and strong. He moved around his opponent while constantly landing his right hand early. He almost dropped Garcia in the first but the strong-chinned WBC champ took all of Thurman's big shots in the chin and never went down.
Garcia, from nearby Philadelphia, attempted to utilize his jab to blind Thurman and find ways to unleash his dreaded left hook, but his opponent's mobility was a puzzle he was not able to solve all night.
Garcia, despite occasional counters, was unsuccessful in posing a danger to the busier Thurman who now is the owner of the two championship belts of the stacked 147 pound division.
"I thought I out-boxed him. I thought it was a clear victory, but Danny came to fight. I knew when it was split and I had that widespread, I knew it had to go to me," expressed the still undefeated champion.
Thurman threw a hundred plus punches more than Garcia (570 to 434) and landed more as well (147 to 130). He also led in the power punches category, landed with 102 to Garcia's 89.
"I came up short tonight. I thought I was the aggressor. I thought I pushed the pace. But it didn?t go my way," said Garcia who lost his first professional fight in front of a crowd that drove more than two hours from Philadelphia and cheered loudly for him all night.
"I thought I won and I was pushing the fight. But it is what it is. He was trying to counter. I had to wait to find my spots," Garcia added.
Those spots never came as he saw his title stolen from him by his rival.
You can reach the author at rrmaze24@aol.com and on Twitter @Freemazon910.
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