Clearwater’s Keith Thurman beats Danny Garcia for another belt

“Danny Garcia is an underrated boxer and puncher and will give Thurman all he can handle”. He owns two of the four welterweight belts, and if he wants to unify the rest, he’s going to have to wait a while.

CBS televises the card at 9 p.m.

Thurman entered the fight a slight favorite, though most saw it a pick ’em. Both men have a strong desire to be the face of the welterweight division, if not all of boxing. Danny was jabbing to the body, setting the table, while One Time wanted to land a nasty shot. “I’m taller than him, I’m wider than him and I have a bigger back than him”. But they both can take punches. Just imagine that it can be accomplished. That’s how I think about this fight game.

“I though I was the aggressor and I was pushing the fight like a true champion”, Garcia said. The International Business Times is predicting a close fight, with Thurman having a slight edge.

Garcia, a Philadelphia native, reveled in the notion that he isn’t expected to win.

“I’ve been the underdog before”. It woke me up, you know, because I’m a slow starter sometimes. I rise to the occasion every time.

Beforehand we thought this would be a good fight and are happy to report we got that one right. Saturday night is my platform to show the world how great of a champion I am. A right buzzed Danny big time and Garcia was feeling it a few times.

In the first round, Thurman went straight to the point throwing strong left hooks that failed at first, driving Garcia back. He had told Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole prior to the bout that Garcia “is not a real welterweight”, and indeed Garcia had done his best work and faced his toughest opposition at or below 140 pounds. “I was controlling the fight from the outside”.

Garcia himself believed that he won the fight, but accepted the decision. I fight to secure my family’s future and that’s what it’s all about. That’s what we train so hard for. FightHub has video (which you can watch at the top of the page) of the elder Garcia going on another tirade.

“Legacy is very important to me”. I came out a little aggressive, maybe more aggressive. I’ve been in big fights before.

Garcia was clueless as to how to force Thurman into a fight and, maybe, even a smidge happy that Thurman wasn’t wanting to really fight. Eventually, the crowd at the Barclays Center, which was buzzing with anticipation before the bout and up on its feet during exchanges in the first two rounds, began booing the nothingness they were seeing.

“Its time that boxing returns to the people”. Saturday’s matchup of unbeaten 28-year-old Americans at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center is only the third unification bout between unbeaten welterweight champions, the first since Oscar de la Hoya faced Felix Trinidad in 1999. He took Garcia’s WBC title to accompany his WBC title.

Yes, unification of boxing titles and that is a rare commodity in the sport.