In the biggest fight of the year thus far for boxing, Keith “One Time” Thurman nearly shocked the world with an early knockout of Danny Garcia. But Garcia proved once again that he is one of the toughest fighters in the world and rallied down the stretch to make the Barclays Center-hosted fight interesting.
As the rounds wore on, Garcia chipped away at Thurman’s massive early lead and after he went for broke in the championship rounds, the fight hung in the balance. Unfortunately for Garcia and his camp, his late surge wasn’t enough and Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs) walked out with a split decision victory. The official scores were 116-112 and 115-113 Thurman and 115-113 Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs). The win allowed Thurman to retain his WBA welterweight title and snatch away Garcia’s WBC strap.
In the Showtime Championship Boxing on CBS co-feature, Eric Lubin trounced Jorge Cota. Lubin (18-0, 13 KOs) seized control early and then dropped Cota (23-2, 20 KOs) with an overhand left in the fourth. Cota was in over his head and referee Earl Brown stopped the bout at 1:25 of the frame.
Light heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara improved to 29-4 with 17 KOs by stopping former world champion Chad Dawson in the 10th. Dawson (34-5, 19 KOs) was felled in the ninth and Fonfara finished him off with a barrage of punches 38 seconds into the final round.