After months of speculation about a possible super fight between former welterweight champions Shawn “Showtime” Porter and Danny “Swift” Garcia, a date has officially been announced for the two boxing stars to meet inside the ring on Saturday, Sept. 8 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY.
Porter and Garcia will be competing for the WBC Welterweight World Title which was vacated by WBA Super World Welterweight Champion Keith “One Time” Thurman last April for inactivity due to constant injuries during training camp.
The protagonist of this main event both fell victims to Thurman, failing to defeat the currently inactive world champion in their respective bouts. Garcia ( 34-1, 20 KOs) lost his WBC Welterweight World title to Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs) in March 2017, while Porter (28-2-1, 17 KOs) came up short as a contender for Thurman’s WBA Welterweight World Title in a Fight of the Year contender toe-to-toe battle June 2016.
Porter bounced back from his loss against Thurman by knocking out Andre Berto and scoring a convincing unanimous decision win against Adrian “Tigre” Granados (18-6, 12 KOs) in 2017. The Philly favorite, on the other hand, didn’t return to the ring for the remainder of the year following his title loss against Thurman, yet pulled off a spectacular performance against former champion Brandon “Bam Bam” Rios (34-4-1, 25 KOs) rising victorious by way of an impressive right-hand knockout.
Though both fighters publicly demanded a rematch from Thurman in front of many media outlets on several occasions, they’d figured it’d be a smarter option to face each other once Thurman vacated the WBC Welterweight Title showing no sign of a possible return in the near future.
After the official announcement, boxing fans took to social media to express their interest for this exciting welterweight matchup and hypothesize possible scenarios of how their styles would come into play on fight night. Perhaps what makes this fight most intriguing is the immense desire of both camps to become world champions once again and set a name for themselves at the top of a division stacked with fantastic talent.
For Garcia, the ambition to take back his previous world title, along with his “no-look hook” can possibly be the deciding factor for the bout to develop in his favor. However, Porter has proven throughout his career that he is not to be taken lightly, as he prevents his opponent from escaping his non-stop pressure. Though some fans may categorize Porter’s pressure and close-range strategies as “dirty fighting,” the majority of fans also seem to believe Porter’s style gave Thurman more problems inside the ring than Garcia’s tactical approach.
Regardless of who rises victorious, this welterweight battle seems promising as both fighters have styles which would match up nicely against other welterweight champions, for endless possibilities of badass unification matches that would captivate boxing fans and keep their attention on the division and boxing altogether.
The winner of Garcia vs. Porter will also have an easier time assuring their much-desired rematch against Thurman for a chance at revenge.
After the Premier Boxing Champions’ Santa Cruz vs. Mares card last month, Porter was in attendance and talked to the media about the possibility of this fight.
“The WBC is up for grabs, and I’m grabbing it!” Porter said.
The fight will air on Showtime Boxing on Saturday, Sept. 8, 9 p.m ET/6 p.m PT, which will conflict with HBO Boxing’s telecast of Promoter Tom Loeffler’s event “Superfly 3” scheduled on the same date at The Forum in Inglewood, Ca. Though no fighters besides Juan Francisco “El Gallo” Estrada (36-3, 25 KOs) have been confirmed for the card, the “Superfly” series has proved to be of tremendous success with boxing fans because of the back and forth, sock-em-bop-em type action-packed fight featured in the entirety of the event.
Devoted boxing enthusiast will most likely flip back and forth between channels or opt for the option to DVR one fight over the other for later enjoyment. Nevertheless, Saturday, Sept. 8 will serve as an amazing night for boxing fanatics both in the East and West coast of the U.S.
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