Let us start by saying that if the fight on the 15th has half the action this fight had then it will live up to the hype. This is going to be considered a candidate for fight of the year. It was a see saw battle for the first half of the fight but it was Porter’s ability and tenacity that pulled it out in the end. This fight is also an in-depth look at how judges score fights. Porter was overwhelming, as he usually is in all his fights and he was quick footed, quicker then Garcia, and had his in and out game down. You can tell it frustrated Garcia a little. Garcia, showed some amazing timing and had the cleaner harder shots as he visibly wobbled Porter at least once but he could not follow up. The difference in the end was Porter’s stamina for which Garcia tried to diminish by landing some thudding blows to the body, which you can tell bothered Porter because he tried to return the favor, When you hurt someone to the body, their instinct is to go to the other person’s body, which Porter did with effectiveness. Porter was the physically stronger fighter while Garcia seemed to be the stronger puncher and had more eye catching shots. In the end, according to compustats, never a super reliable way to actually record landed punches but has some viability, showed that Garcia landed more power shots but threw way less. Porter overwhelmed Garcia with punches in bunches, landing some very good shots of his own, but was caught just a smidge more. The question that presented itself was what were the judges going to reward? It was a game of accuracy versus activity and in a close fight like this, the judges rewarded activity. I congratulate Showtime Shawn Porter, seemingly a really good guy, which may have also played a role in the decision, on his win and his endeavor to obtaining a World Championship. Who said nice guys finish last.

It goes down in the record books and every time future generations look back at world champions in probably the most talented division in boxing history, right there with the middleweights, with the likes of the greatest of all time, not Mayweather, Robinson, though Mayweather might be second on that list, Shawn Porter was one of them and I personally believe he deserves that honor.

The one knock and maybe the reason why Garcia might have given the fight away is because he looks for the one hitter quitters. With someone like Porter, who has an excellent chin but was hurt, Garcia needed to press that advantage. Instead of looking for the opening, Garcia needed to create that opening when Porter was hurt. Porter would have turtled up but Garcia needed to break through the shell and land some good hard shots to get the knockdown. Porter followed up quickly every time he felt that he hurt Garcia even though Garcia had good defense. That might have been the difference.

I had the fight 114-114 but was overruled because my opinion doesn’t matter.