By Dan Ambrose: After months of talk, former welterweights Danny Garcia (34-1, 20 KO) and Shawn Porter (28-2-1, 17 KOs) will officially be fighting it out on September 8 for the vacant WBC 147-pound title on Showtime Boxing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The start time is at 9:00 p.m. ET.
This is a fight that has almost past it’s expiration date, as neither of these guys are considered to be the best or even the third best fighters at 147. Garcia and Porter have dropped off badly with newer talent passing them by like Errol Spence Jr., Terence Crawford and Keith Thurman. As a result, Garcia vs. Porter almost feels like a fight for a lower level belt than the welterweight division’s most prestigious title in the WBC belt.
Both Garcia and Porter had been calling on Keith Thurman to give them a rematch after they were beaten by him, but he’s been unable to return to the ring as of yet after undergoing elbow surgery 16 months ago. However, Thurman made a class move in vacating his WBC title so that Garcia could face Porter for the vacant title. When Thurman does eventually return to action, he can face the winner of the fight if IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. doesn’t get to the winner first. Spence has been saying lately that he’s been told that he’ll get a shot at fighting the winner of the Porter-Garcia fight. That’s still not a given. Garcia and his father/trainer Angel Garcia might have other ideas if they capture the vacant WBC title. Porter is more likely to face Spence than Garcia, who has had a lot of resume padding fights during his 11-year pro career. Garcia’s only three opponents during his career is Lucas Matthysse, Amir Khan and Thurman. The rest of the names are older fighters like Erik Morales, Nate Campbell, Zab Judah, Kendal Holt and Paulie Malignaggi and beatable former champions Robert Guerrero, Lamont Peterson and Brandon Rios.
“I’m excited and motivated to go in there and recapture what’s mine,” said Garcia. “The WBC title belongs to me. Come September 8, I’m going to prove that I’m the best fighter in the world.”
Garcia might beat Porter, but the welterweight division obviously won’t belong to him. A win for Garcia over Porter will only prove that he can beat him and not much else. There are better fighters at 147 than Porter. That’s already been established in Porter’s losses to Kell Brook and Keith Thurman. Porter isn’t in the same league as Errol Spence and Terence Crawford unfortunately. If Garcia can defeat Porter, he would only be the World Boxing Council 147 lb. belt holder like he was before. Garcia would be considered a paper champion and not a true world champion. For Garcia to prove that he’s the best in the world at welterweight, he’ll need to risk his WBC belt and take on Spence and Crawford. Short of that, Garcia will be seen as just another champion. It would be nice if Garcia challenges himself by facing Thurman, Spence or Crawford if he gets past Porter, but that’s unlikely to happen. Garcia’s recent fight against past his best Brandon Rios suggests that he’s probably going to milk the WBC title by facing weak opposition if he beats Porter
Despite a lack of success lately, Porter and Garcia are still widely known by casual boxing fans. However, both of them have been surpassed by Keith Thurman, Terence Crawford and Errol Spence as being recognized as the best fighters in the division. Garcia, #1 WBC, will be looking to become a two-time welterweight champion against Porter. For his part, Porter will also be looking to win his second world title at 147 after previously holding the IBF title. Porter lost the title to Kell Brook by a 12 round majority decision defeat in 2014. Porter lost to Thurman in June 2016 in a failed attempt to win the WBA welterweight title.
This fight is long overdue, as Porter has been chasing Garcia for years with no luck. Garcia has been content to fight Brandon Rios, Samuel Vargas, Robert Guerrero, Paulie Malignaggi, Lamont Peterson, Rod Salka and Mauricio Herrera. Those are all tune-up level opposition, but Garcia has been padding his resume against them and not taking the dangerous fights against Porter and Errol Spence Jr. Garcia stepped it up last year in March against Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman, and he was predictably beaten by a 12 round decision. Luckily for Garcia, Thurman suffered an elbow injury and wound up giving up his World Boxing Council welterweight title without a fight in vacating it before the WBC could give him the ‘Emeritus champion’ status.
“My loss is behind me and it’s given me a chip on my shoulder to run that extra mile and train even harder,” Garcia said about his to Thurman. ”I know that Shawn Porter is not on my level. I’m coming to fight him in the middle of the ring and I’m going to beat him at his game.”
The Garcia-Porter fight is expected to be a mauling affair with both guys grappling on the inside for as long as it lasts. One would hope that it doesn’t turn into a low blow clinic like Danny Garcia’s fight against Lucas Matthysse five years ago in 2013. That fight was painful to watch due to the high number of low blows Garcia landed in the fight. Porter is likely going to be on top of Garcia with a lot of head clashes, cuts and bruises from the inside war. Garcia will predictably use a lot of clinching and grappling to try and neutralize Porter’s inside game, as he doesn’t like to fight in close. Garcia prefers to keep the action at medium to long distance so he can get his shots off. Garcia’s best weapon is his left hook, which he can throw with a lot of power when he loads up with that shot. However, Garcia isn’t a big puncher on the inside. He doesn’t have power on the inside, so he’s likely going to be making sure that he ties Porter up to keep him from getting his punches off. The fight could be very, very ugly if the referee doesn’t keep control of the fight to limit the amount of holding and wrestling.
Porter seems to have a pretty good idea of how Garcia is going to fight him, as he’s already planning on what to do when he starts grabbing him in a clinch. In Garcia’s fight against Matthysse, he was getting his shots off first, and then diving in to tie him up all night long. It worked well for Garcia because Matthysse was constantly being held to keep him from getting his punches off. Garcia would change things up every once in a while by hitting Matthysse with powerful low blows that would send him down on the canvas in pain.
“I’m going to force Danny Garcia to fight me, to be uncomfortable and to do things he’s not used to doing in a fight,” said Porter. “If Danny comes in being defensive and trying to hold, it may last a while. But if he comes and tries to trade with me and prove something to himself, then it will end fast.”
Porter will need to be able to handle Garcia’s left hook and short right hand if he decides to fight him. Garcia tires quickly though and he can be worked over, as we saw in his recent fight against a past his best Brandon Rios on February 17. Rios landed a lot of slow power shots to the head and midsection of Garcia. However, after Rios gassed out, Garcia knocked him out in the 9th round with a hard right hand.
”I think my style will give him problems and not allow him to pace himself,” Porter said about Garcia. ”This is going to be an instant classic and I’m going to win and become champion once again.”
Porter can give Garcia problems if he’s able to keep the pressure on him for three minutes of each round, and force him to fight on the inside without being able to take his badly needed rest breaks. However, Porter is going to need to be able to fight through Garcia’s clinches, and handle his occasional low blows that he might resort to throwing if the fight turns into a brutal one for him. That’s not going to be an easy fight for Porter if he can’t extract himself from Garcia’s embraces on the inside because he’ll surely be looking to stall out the rounds after he gets his shots off.
Porter has recent wins over Adrian Granados and Andre Berto in his last two fights. Porter lost to Thurman two years ago by a 12 round unanimous decision. Before that, Porter had picked up two wins over Erick Bone and Adrien Broner. Porter lost to Kell Brook in 2016 in a fight that involved a great deal of clinching by the British fighter. Brook used a punch and grab strategy to get his shots off and tie up immediately to keep Porter from getting his shots off. It worked well for Brook. The referee Pat Russell didn’t penalize Brook for his constant clinching, and Porter did a poor job of fighting through the clinches.