Shawn Porter has returned to the top of the mountain at 147 pounds, winning an exciting and extremely close fight against Danny Garcia.
In the main event of a Showtime Championship Boxing card from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Porter scored a close unanimous decision win over Garcia (116-112, 115-113, 115-113). Porter won his second world title, completing a journey back to the top after losses to Kell Brook in 2014 and then in 2016 when Porter unsuccessfully challenged for the WBA welterweight title.
The first few rounds saw Garcia open up with select left hooks finding the mark on Porter. In the first round, Garcia landed a counter left hook to momentarily stun Porter, but Porter was able to shake it off.
The bout would then be physical and scrappy as expected and Porter took the fight to the inside. The two boxers would clinch numerous times throughout the fight, but there was not an idle moment as both men tried to land their punches.
Porter started to get into second gear starting in the seventh round when he landed his body shots more often. Porter’s footwork improved as the fight got deeper, allowing him to dodge some of Garcia’s punches and put the former IBF welterweight champion in better position to land his punches.
The eighth round was perhaps Porter’s best round of the fight, when he threw nearly 100 punches, a career-high for him. Garcia went back to throwing hooks in the ninth round, looking to make a comeback after Porter’s flurry of shots from the round prior. Garcia managed to land a double counter left hook midway in the ninth round, gaining some much-needed momentum.
The final round saw Porter stick and move, then work the body with several three-punch combinations to Garcia’s ribs. Garcia landed a four-punch combination of hooks upstairs and the last 30 seconds of the fight saw both men trade body shots as the crowd of more than 13,000 at the Barclays Center spurred them on to keep fighting until the end.
According to SHO Stats, Garcia landed 168 of 472 total punches (36 percent) while Porter landed 180 of 742 total punches (24 percent).
Now that Porter is the WBC champion, a number of big fights are already lined up. There’s a potential rematch against WBA champion Keith Thurman and a potential welterweight superfight against IBF titleholder Errol Spence Jr. However, if none of those fights do materialize next for the WBC champion, there is a chance that he would have to face Yordenis Ugas, who won a title eliminator in the co-main event bout.
This fight came together as both men were the mandatory challengers to the WBC title, previously held by Thurman. But when Thurman vacated the belt earlier this year, WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman ordered both Garcia and Porter to compete for the vacant title with the condition that Thurman would get an immediate shot at the title once Thurman is fully healthy and willing to fight for the world title he never lost in the ring.
After the fight, Spence entered the ring, looking to challenge Porter in a unification fight. When asked about wanting to fight Porter, Spence said he would absolutely love to have it take place in 2019.
