Even though it was meant to be more as a stay-busy showcase for welterweight titlist Danny Garcia, there was inherent risk involved because anything can happen in a fight. Luckily for all parties involved in the promotion of next year’s mega showdown between Garcia and Keith Thurman, everything went according to plan in the PBC on Spike main event on Saturday in Philadelphia.
The official time of the stoppage came at 2:17 of Round 7, allowing Garcia to remain unbeaten in the non-title affair. The rousing victory ignited the raucous crowd inside the Liacouras Center, as the next step for Garcia is to unify a portion of the welterweight crown with Thurman in March.
In the co-feature, welterweight contender Jarrett Hurd systematically tore apart JoJo Dan (35-4, 18 KOs) and took him out in the sixth round. Hurd mixed up his punches well, going to the head and body; and as the rounds wore on, Hurd’s power advantage was the difference. After dishing out plenty of punishment, Hurd (19-0, 13 KOs) was on the verge of stopping his foe at any moment, but Dan’s corner beat him to it and tossed in the towel at the 1:06 mark of Round 6.
Meanwhile, former WBA super featherweight champion Javier Fortuna (31-1-1, 22 KOs) had to pick himself up off the deck in the first round and change his strategy to upend the previously unbeaten Omar Douglas (17-1, 12 KOs) via unanimous decision. The scores were 96-93, 96-93 and 95-94 for Fortuna, who walked away with a win after 10 spirited rounds.