WBC ordering Danny Garcia vs. Shawn Porter fight

Boxingnews24.com

By Dan Ambrose: The WBC is going to make Danny Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs) and Shawn Porter earn a title shot against WBC welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman by fighting each other for the interim WBC 147lb title.

Thurman, 28, is out of action recovering from recent elbow surgery, which will keep him on the shelf until 2018. In the meantime, World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman is ordering Porter and Garcia to fight. The winner of the contest will be the guy that fights Thurman. It’s not exactly the best deal for Porter (27-2-1, 17 KOs), who already earned the WBC mandatory position by beating Andre Berto by a 9th round knockout on April 22 in a WBC 147 lb. title eliminator at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Porter, 29, wanted to fight Danny Garcia anyway, so this isn’t something he’s going to make a big production about.

It’ll be interesting to see if Danny Garcia agrees to fight Porter. He and his dad/trainer Angel Garcia might not too pleased at hearing the news that the WBC wants him to jump through a big hoop to get the rematch with Thurman. Garcia has been the A-side for so long. It’s hard to imagine him agreeing to have to fight for the right to face Thurman. Garcia has it easy winning his WBC title last year, and he also had it very easy winning his light welterweight belts. He didn’t have to fight anyone good to win his titles. Garcia won his WBC light welterweight title in 2012 beating a past his prime Erik Morales. In the same year, Garcia beat Amir Khan to win the WBA title. Khan’s chin didn’t hold up to Garcia’s shots, just as it didn’t hold up when he fought Briedis Prescott. If Garcia decides he’s not going to fight Porter, he’ll still likely get a fight against Thurman. It just means he’ll have to wait behind Porter before he eventually gets the rematch.

Porter has a fight to get out of the way against Thomas Dulorme (24-2, 16 KOs) on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor fight card on August 26 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Porter must beat Dulorme for him to be able to battle for the interim WBC welterweight title against Danny Garcia. None the less, there’s little chance Porter will lose to Dulorme, who isn’t ranked in the top 15 by any of the sanctioning bodies at welterweight or light welterweight. Dulorme was a good prospect earlier in his career, but his career has lost momentum since his knockout defeats at the hands of Luis Abregu and Terence Crawford.

“Yes there is the issue that Porter is going to have a fight in a few days with Dulorme, but if he wins we’re going to order the fight for the interim title with Danny Garcia,”said WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman to ESPN Deportes.

Danny Garcia lost his last fight to Thurman by a 12-round split decision on March 4 this year. Garcia, 29, lost his WBC 147lb title in his loss to Thurman. This is the same time that Garcia won in beating Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero a year earlier in defeating him by a 12 round unanimous decision on January 23. Garcia didn’t have to do much to win the WBC title. The WBC made it easy on Garcia to win their vacant WBC welterweight title last year by letting him fight Guerrero, who had lost 2 out of his last 4 fights. It was too easy for Garcia. In his loss to Thurman, Danny Garcia started off slowly and found himself far behind in the fight going into the second half of the contest. Garcia rallied to make it close at the end in losing by the scores 116-112, 115-113 for Thurman, and 115-113 for Garcia. Boxing News 24 scored the fight 116-112 for Thurman. He jumped out to a big lead in appearing to win the first 6 rounds. Garcia fought like he feared Thurman. It wasn’t until Thurman faded in rounds 8 through 12 that Garcia was able to well.

Porter lost to Thurman by a close 12 round unanimous decision on June 25, 2016. The scores were 115-113, 115-113 and 115-113. Porter had a chance to win the fight, but he was worked over by Thurman in getting hurt a couple of times I the fight while going on the attack. If Porter is going to fight Thurman a second time, then he’s going to need to work on his defense to make sure that he doesn’t get caught as much while coming in, because he made it too easy on Thurman.

One thing we found out in the Thurman-Porter fight is that Thurman has problems fighting hard for the full 12 rounds. Thurman gets tired and needs to rest when he’s unable to fight at a slower pace in the last half of his fights.

The loser of the Porter-Garcia fight is going to need to hit the reset button on their career. It would be the second recent loss for either of them. It would be bad for Porter, as he was also beaten by Kell Brook in 2014. Porter would have to decide whether it would be better to go after Spence or to continue to plug away to try and get a rematch with Thurman. Porter would likely be wasting his time trying to get a fight against Horn, because he’s promoted by Top Rank. Porter might end up waiting years before he got a title shot against Horn or whoever ends up with the WBO title. It’s quite possible that Terence Crawford will eventually be the one that holds the WBO belt once the smoke clears. Crawford is the type that would be open to fighting anyone if were up to him.

Danny Garcia has already been offered a free title shot against IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr., and he doesn’t have to work for that fight. Spence, 27, is willing to give Garcia a title shot. It might be better off for Garcia o take the fight with Spence than it will for him to have to try and go through Porter to get a rematch with Thurman. It’s going to be hard enough for Garcia to try and beat Thurman in the rematch. But when you throw in a fight against Porter, I think it’s crazy for him to have to go that route. Garcia isn’t the same fighter at 147 as he was at 140 in my opinion. Garcia is a talented guy, but he was shown to be limited by Thurman.

If Garcia was fighting someone that doesn’t tire in the second half of his fights like Thurman, he would have been badly beaten in that fight. I think Garcia should think seriously about ignoring the WBC’s decision to order him to fight Porter, because that’s too tough of a fight. Garcia should either go after Spence or see if he can fight WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn if he can. That would be a hard fight for Garcia to get. Garcia isn’t in the best position to get someone like Horn to fight him, given his recent loss to Thurman.

I have a feeling that Thurman isn’t going to hold onto his WBA, WBA titles for too much longer. With him getting older, putting on weight in between fights, and fading in the last two fights, I don’t see Thurman keeping his titles when he faces the winner of the Garcia vs. Porter fight.