This past Saturday night, from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, the sport of boxing was treated to an excellent matchup as former champions Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia squared off. After the match, it was Porter who shed his “former champion” status by defeating Garcia over 12 rounds to capture the WBC welterweight title.
Scores of 116-112 and 115-113 twice were not quite indicative of how evenly-fought much of the rounds were in this dandy. At the end of the day it seemed to be Porter’s unrelenting will and pressure that carried him to victory.
But, that doesn’t mean Garcia agreed with the decision at all. Speaking post-fight following the SHOWTIME matchup, Garcia shared his view of the fight.
“He was throwing a lot,” said Garcia. “I had my defense tight, so I wasn’t feeling his punches. I thought I landed the cleaner shots and won the fight.”
Garcia sees his record drop to 34-2 with 20 knockouts, as this is indeed his second defeat in the past three fights. He also lost a close decision to WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman a year and a half ago.
“I have to sit back, relax, and see what’s next for me,” Garcia also said.
And Garcia did just that, but not without staying firm on who he believes was the true victor on Saturday night.
First Garcia took to Instagram and thanked his followers for their support, stating the following.
“Thank you all for the love and support. I thought I landed the more clean, effective punches to victory. It’s all good! What don’t kill me makes me stronger.”
But Garcia wasn’t done there. A follow-up post to Twitter seemed to reek of frustration.
“Just watched the fight. I landed almost 50% of my punches, landed more power shots, and made him miss almost 300 punches. i won that fight.”
Fans and supporters have seemed to be split on Garcia’s view of things. Many, of course, are being loyal to their fighter, agreeing that he should have won this fight. Others, however, either believe that Porter did enough to win or that perhaps Garcia was given a dose of karma for his previous showings, fights that went the distance in close contests that were in his favor.
The two specific matchups that come to mind are Garcia’s March 2014 victory over Mauricio Herrera in Puerto Rico, a fight that won by majority decision despite some very tense moments, and his April 2015 majority decision over Lamont Peterson. The Peterson fight appeared to show Garcia fade a bit as the contest wore on in the face of Peterson’s will, yet Danny came out on top.
Such is the way of the boxing world. When matches are close, and the rounds are hard to score, you never know what kind of result you are going to get from the three judges sitting ringside.
But this particular fight seems to have Garcia feeling a certain way. Just moments ago, Garcia posted yet another caption regarding the contest, this one including a small highlight clip of the match that shows him landing some clean blows while Porter was seen being awkward with his attack.
Garcia’s caption had no words, only an emoji making a questionable face.
What is good for Garcia is that he gave such a valiant effort that he will be back where he belongs, in a big fight in the future.
