Yes, Thurman has 22 knockouts in 28 fights, all wins. He won this unification bout, though, by getting tactical and going somewhat conservative.
“I was not giving the fight away,” he said. “I felt like we had a nice lead, we could cool down. I felt like we were controlling the 3-minute intervals in each and every round.” Thurman handed Garcia his first loss in 34 bouts.
After five furious rounds to open things at Barclays Center, the pace slowed — even bringing boos from the large crowd at times. But it ended with a flourish of exchanges in the 12th and final round. And with Thurman holding up two belts.
Thurman won a split decision, getting scores of 116-112 and 115-113. Garcia, favored by a majority of the fans who loudly derided the announcement of the winner, won one card 115-113.
Using powerful rights, including straight leads that stopped Garcia in his tracks, Thurman dominated early. Garcia landed the occasional bomb, particularly one shot to the body that had Thurman grimacing at the end of the 10th. Garcia came on from there, but it was too late.
Thurman won a terrific bout with Shawn Porter at Barclays last June. This one wasn’t of such high quality throughout, but it had its moments. Both fighters opened up without reservation, each missing several haymakers, but also landing solid punches. Thurman’s right leads were particularly effective, while Garcia, whose right eye was getting red by the fourth round, used his right hand to keep Thurman off-balance.
With each fighter capable of landing the one punch to end it, the crowd of 16,533 roared with every shot — until the sixth, when both guys got cautious. Despite all the previous action, the fans booed what clearly was the worst round of the bout.
It was nearly impossible to live up to the fury of the first five rounds, anyway, and only occasionally the rest of the way did the fight do so. But Thurman strategically was being smart.
Garcia, 146.5 pounds, of Philadelphia, actually landed a higher percentage of his punches, 30 percent to 26 percent for Thurman, 146.2 of Clearwater, Florida. But Thurman was far more active, attempting 570 punches, 136 more than Garcia.
The bout wasn’t very reminiscent of the classic 1981 welterweight unification fight between Sugar Ray Leonard, who announced this one from ringside for CBS, and Thomas Hearns. Leonard said this week he believed it could reach that level, but only early on and very late was that close to true. (AP)