By Allan Fox: Danny Garcia (23-0, 14 KO’s) fought his heart out on Saturday night defeating 35-year-old fading star Erik Morales (52-8, 36 KO’s) by a 12 round unanimous decision to win the vacant World Boxing Council (WBC) light welterweight title at the Reliant Arena, in Houston, Texas, United States. Garcia won it by the scores of 117-110, 116-112 and 118-109.

Morales was knocked down in the 11th by a hard left hand from Garcia. The fight was never really all that close, as the 24-year-old Garcia made sure he threw a lot of punches and kept the pressure on the aging Morales to keep him getting any kind of rhythm in the fight. Afterwards, Morales felt that the scores were too wide and that he had done better in the early part of the fight to make it close. I personally had Garcia winning by wide margin with Morales winning only three rounds. Morales’ jab was out of this world, but he didn’t have anything to go with it because his speed and power wasn’t there. For the most part, Morales looked like a soggy noodle with a slight pot belly. The fact that Morales was able to fight Garcia somewhat competitively is more of an indication of how mediocre Garcia is as a fighter than it says anything about what Morales has left. He doesn’t have much left after all these years, but Garcia is so average that he still couldn’t dominate Morales. If this was a better light welterweight like Timothy Bradley, Morales would have been in trouble.

Garcia gave Morales a lot of respect in the first two rounds; too much respect and he made it close unnecessarily. However, Garcia pulled away from Morales starting in the 3rd and never looked back.

Morales’ best rounds of the fight were the 4th, 5th and 10th. Morales did a number on Garcia’s job in the 10th, bloodying it with jabs. Garcia came back in the 11th to knock Morales down with a nice left hand after Morales was off to a good start of the round. Garcia finished the round pummeling Morales. The 12th was all Garcia as well.

Morales looked like a shot fighter in this bout and he really needs to consider retirement because if he can’t be a limited fighter like Garcia, then he needs to make a big decision about his career.

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In other action on the card:

Jermell Charlo TKO 5 Shawn Wilson
Daquan Arnett TKO 1 Fabian Cancino
Lanard Lane TKO 8 Milton Ramos
Jamie Kavanagh TKO 5 Cesar Cisneros