By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Angel Garcia says Keith “One Time” Thurman ran the entire night in beating WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia last Saturday night in their fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Thurman used a lot of movement in the last 6 rounds of the fight to win a 12 round split decision on the judges’ scorecards.
They scored it 116-112, 115-113 for Thurman, and 115-113 for Garcia. Angel says he’s “disgusted” by the scoring of the fight, and he thinks his son Danny should have been given the victory. The judges were likely impressed with the sharp right hands that Thurman was able to land repeatedly to the head of Garcia the entire fight.
Garcia did nothing to stop those shots from coming through his guard. In the second half of the bout, Garcia started to back Thurman up with his forward pressure. That’s when Thurman started to use movement to elude Danny. It worked well for Thurman, but it made the fight less interesting to watch for the boxing fans. They were definitely booing Thurman for his decision to use his “circle boxing” that he likes to call it.
“The WBC was disgusted to give him the belt, because he didn’t win,” said Angel Garcia to Fighthub.com about Thurman. “He ran the whole [expletive] night. I want Danny to retire today. We ain’t no stepping stone for nobody. I had it 7. I’ll give them 5 rounds if anything. He ain’t [expletive] win,” said Angel.
Angel wasn’t telling Danny in between rounds to start pressuring Thurman. If you want to blame anyone for Garcia’s defeat, you have to look at the role Angel played with his instructions in between rounds. Angel was giving Garcia some good advice like telling him to throw body shots. But he wasn’t telling Garcia to pressure Thurman and back him up the way he needed to.
That was a clear mistake on Angel’s part. He should have looked at the tape of Thurman’s last fight against Shawn Porter and noticed that he struggled when he was being backed up. Thurman did well against Porter when he was stationary. Thurman does very well against fighters that standstill the way that Garcia was most of the fight. Angel did not give Garcia the right advice during the crucial rounds of the fight, which was in the first 6 rounds. That’s when Garcia was stationary and Thurman was able to build up a huge lead with his in and out attacks.
When asked what Garcia should have done to to beat Thurman, Angel said, “Danny knock him the [expletive] out. That’s what Danny should have done cause Thurman was the favorite going in.”
Garcia and Thurman share the same management. They should be able to face each other in a rematch at some point in the future, but I wouldn’t expect that to happen in 2017. Thurman will likely face the winner of the Shawn Porter vs. Andre Berto fight or the winner of the Kell Brook vs. Errol Spence Jr. fight. If Porter beats Berto, then I see Thurman being put in with the Brook-Spence winner next. It’s a little soon to have Thurman facing Porter again after his win over him last June. Thurman vs. Spence would be a huge fight in the welterweight division. The winner of the contest could be the next superstar at 147. Thurman needs a win over a solid fighter like Spence to raise his profile in the boxing world. It’s unclear whether Thurman has toe ability to stand and fight a pressure fighter like Spence though. That’s a bad match-up for Thurman. Spence would force Thurman to move round 1, and it might be hard for him to a win a decision if he chooses to move for 12 rounds instead of standing and fighting.