Porter’s Quantity Gets Nod, and WBC Title, over Garcia’s Quality

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – For the three individuals charged with the responsibility of determining the winner of Saturday night’s Showtime-televised main event for the vacant WBC welterweight championship, the task must have seemed like deciding where to go to dinner on a given evening. Do the prospective diners opt for quantity, and head for the all-you-can eat buffet at the neighborhood shopping center? Or do they go for something of ostensibly higher quality, but with entrees off the menu that offer smaller, less-filling portions?

If the scorecards of judges Don Ackerman, Julie Lederman and Eric Marlinski, and punch statistics compiled by CompuBox, are any indication, Shawn Porter’s unanimous decision over Danny Garcia was a collective vote for the all-you-eat buffet. Porter, known for his frenetic work rate, unfurled an astounding 270 more punches than Garcia over the 12-round distance at the Barclays Center, but connected with only 12 more and at a much lower accuracy rate (180 of 742, 24 percent,  to Garcia’s 168 of 472, 36 percent). The gap in power-punch percentile was even wider, with Garcia landing 139 of 304, 46 percent, to 134 of 544, 25 percent, for the eventual winner.

All that remained after the last punch had been thrown was for the verdict of the empaneled judiciary to offer their assessment. Ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. informed what remained of an audience of 13,058 spectators – a sizable portion of the red-clad Polish fans who had come to see cheer Polish-born heavyweight Adam Kownacki on his way to a unanimous, 10-round decision over Charles Martin had vacated the premises after their hero’s victory – to read the tabulated scores. After Lennon noted that the decision had been arrived at unanimously, both fighters’ corners anxiously awaited to hear which of their stylistically different approaches would be rewarded.

The nod would go to Porter, a former IBF 147-pound champion, who was seen as the winner on the cards submitted by Ackerman (116-112), Lederman (115-113) and Marlinski (115-113).

“Throughout the fight we thought we had a hold (of a victory on points), but my dad (Kenny Porter, who trains his son) wasn’t so sure, given what’s happened before (on close decisions at Barclays that have gone against both Porter and Garcia),” Porter said. “When I heard `unanimous decision,’ I just wanted to hear my name. The moment I heard my name, I was just, like, `Wow.’”

Not hearing his name called elicited the same reaction, if more frustratingly so, from Garcia, and it was much the same as he and his father-trainer, Angel Garcia, felt the last time Danny had fought at Barclays, on March 4, 2017, when the then-WBC welterweight champ lost a split decision in his unification showdown with WBA titlist Keith Thurman.

“He threw more punches than me, but I landed at a higher percentage of my shots,” a clearly disappointed Garcia said during his wee-hours turn at the post-fight press conference after the exultant Team Porter had exited. “I thought that would be enough to win the fight. It was a close fight, but I thought it should have went my way. The judges didn’t see it that way.

“It is what it is. That’s the way (Porter) fights. He got an ugly style. I don’t know how to feel right now. I’m a true champion. I thought I landed cleaner punches. My defense was good. He threw a lot of punches, but they weren’t effective. I just got to sit back now and see what’s next for me.”

Not surprisingly, Angel Garcia, the most vocal conspiracy theorist this side of film director Oliver Stone, saw his son’s latest defeat by pencil as some sort of deep-state plot that owed not so much to judges’ perception as to a more sinister rationale.

“We didn’t lose that fight, bro,” the always-combative Angel said. “It was b—s— politics. That’s all it was. Danny had the cleaner shots. We won the first seven rounds easy.”

Opinions will vary, of course, but even the staunchest Garcia loyalists – and they were definitely a larger, more vocal contingent than the Porter cheering section, not surprising given the fact Garcia was fighting at Barclays for the seventh time and was coming from relatively nearby Philadelphia – might concede that Thurman had done enough to win when they squared off 18 months ago. The Porter fight, however, left enough gray area so that the consequences of the verdict will be debated for some time to come. While Garcia, still a relatively young man in a boxing sense at 30, will have to assess a future that likely will require a couple of reputation-replenishing victories to again put him in line for another title shot, Porter, also 30, finds himself in a favorable enough situation where his options all should yield high exposure and fat paydays in the foreseeable future.

Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs), who has been on the shelf with injuries and whose vacated WBC title was on the line (he still holds the WBA belt), was in the house as was IBF welterweight ruler Errol Spence Jr. (24-0, 21 KOs), who is considered by many to be the best welterweight around and the path to the Willy Wonka-style golden ticket for all aspirants to the division’s most well-appointed throne room.

Spence entered the ring after Porter was revealed as the winner to offer himself as a true litmus test of welterweight supremacy, at a date that likely will come in the first quarter of 2019. Team Porter would prefer that that unification bout be held sooner, but Spence apparently prefers to first take a fight with another attractive opponent, WBC/IBF lightweight champ Mikey Garcia (39-0, 30 KOs), who is hot to move up a couple of divisions to test himself against a fellow pound-for-pound contender.

Asked who he would like his son to mix it up with next, Kenny Porter said, “Errol Spence, Errol Spence, Errol Spence. If anybody decides to do anything other than that, that’s not in our control. But we want to fight Errol Spence. I don’t want to see Shawn fight ’til he’s 40 years old. I want him to fight the prime guys now while he’s in his prime – Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Errol Spence, Bud Crawford. Great fighters should make each other great. Let’s fight.”

If the Spence-Mikey Garcia fight puts Porter temporarily on hold, the newly crowned champion might have to choose on waiting for Spence’s dance card to have an opening, or filling in the time with a possible defense against Cuba’s Yordenis Ugas (23-3, 11 KOs), who scored a workmanlike unanimous decision over Argentina’s Cesar Barrioneuevo (34-4-2, 24 KOs) in a WBC welterweight elimination, which was a part of the three-fight Showtime portion of the card.

“I want the winner of Danny Garcia vs. Shawn Porter,” Ugas said after he pitched a shutout at Barrionuevo, who seemed disinclined to engage. “I’m here to compete with the top-level guys in the sport.”

Although it had been widely predicted that Garcia-Porter would be a Fight of the Year candidate, and it wasn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, the best fight of the night – and easily the loudest – was the close but unanimous decision for Kownacki (18-0, 14 KOs) over former IBF heavyweight champion Charles Martin (25-2-1, 23 KOs). So raucous were the Kownacki supporters – like Garcia, he was making his seventh appearance at Barclays – you would have thought they had been handed megaphones upon entering the building.

All three judges went for Kownacki by scores of 96-94.

“I think the fans liked it,” said Kownacki, who is ranked No. 10 by the WBC. “It was a good fight. I worked very hard to look impressive tonight.  I proved tonight that I’m a top 10 fighter at heavyweight. I need a few more fights before the title shot. But it’s coming.

“I thought I won the decision a little wider than the cards, but Charles came to fight all night. He was in shape and coming forward and I had to dig deep.”

And the vocal support of his fans, who chanted his name throughout and with fervor reminiscent of how teenage girls reacted during Beatles concerts back in the day?

“The Polish fans were awesome tonight,” Kownacki allowed.  “It definitely gave me a boost. It’s a blessing. They’re the best in the world.”

Martin, like Garcia, figured he deserved better than congratulations for a nice effort, and a nice parting gift that goes to losing game-show participants. “I believe I (should have) got the win,” he complained. “I did work on the inside and no one saw that. I did really good work on the inside.”

Not on the Showtime portion of the card, but nonetheless entertaining, was the 10-round unanimous decision for Brooklyn-born Amanda Serrano (35-1-1, 26 KOs) over Argentina’s Yamila Esther Reynoso (11-5-3, 8 KOs) for the WBO women’s junior welterweight championship. Serrano, a six-time world champion, said she believes the next move in her quest for something approaching gender equity is to get the kind of TV exposure the guys get.

“I hope this fight shows the fans that girls can fight and we can give it our all just like the men do,” Serrano said. “We deserve this platform and we deserve to be shown.”

Photo credit: Amanda Westcott / SHOWTIME

Bernard Fernandez is the retired boxing writer for the Philadelphia Daily News. He is a five-term former president of the Boxing Writers Association of America, an inductee into the Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Atlantic City Boxing Halls of Fame and the recipient of the Nat Fleischer Award for Excellence in Boxing Journalism and the Barney Nagler Award for Long and Meritorious Service to Boxing.

Check out more boxing news on video at The Boxing Channel

To comment on this article at The Fight Forum, CLICK HERE.