Garcia, Porter Fighting For WBC Gold, Bigger Opportunities
The welterweight division has always been coveted as one of boxing’s most exciting weight classes and Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter are set to collide with the vacant WBC title on the line on September 8.
The two former world champions return to the Barclays Center looking to win the WBC title and stake their respective claim as the best boxer in the world.
In an exclusive interview with FIGHT SPORTS, Porter expressed excitement over the possibility to cover his waist with the historic green and gold world title.
“The extra motivation [to go out and beat Garcia] will come with wanting to win this very title. The WBC title means the world to me and I have to win this fight. I have to win this fight because this is a goal for me and I’ve always wanted to win the WBC title. It’s a title shot of a lifetime,” Porter said.
Even though the goal in this fight for both men is to win the coveted WBC welterweight title, Garcia and Porter both have bigger, yet different, goals that extend past September 8.
For Garcia, it is a rematch against former champion and current WBA titleholder Keith Thurman, the man who handed the Philadelphia native his first loss as a pro boxer. As it was Thurman who vacated the title and forced this matchup between Garcia and Porter to be for the title, Garcia said he would rather have his rematch, but main wishes to win back the title he lost.
“No, I’d rather have the rematch with Thurman, but it is what it is. It’s an opportunity to win back my title, so I’m blessed and I’m happy,” Garcia told FIGHT SPORTS.
On the other side, Porter said he is relishing the fact that he is fighting for the WBC title, but the big fight down the road isn’t his a rematch with Thurman, whom Porter lost to in 2016, but a bout against Errol Spence Jr.
Since Thurman’s last fight, Spence became the IBF welterweight champion and emerged as a star in an already deep division at 147 pounds. If Porter emerges victorious, then Spence is Porter’s No. 1 fight to make.
“Those opportunities are there for me for the taking and it all starts on September 8. We all know what’s next in line which is a unification fight against Errol Spence Jr.,” Porter said.
When the fighters step into the ring, not only will it be the end of many months of back-and-forth trash talk, it would also determine whose fighter’s father is the better trainer. The WBC has created a special trainer’s belt to be awarded to the winning boxer’s father and trainer, whether it be Angel Garcia or Kenny Porter.
It’s not often that trainers are given this level of attention before a world title fight, but Danny Garcia is all for the winning parent to be rewarded for years of training their son to win the WBC welterweight belt.
“It feels great. I think it’s great what the WBC is doing, giving the trainers a belt. It’s going to feel good with it on my dad’s waist.”
But just as Garcia, a native of Philadelphia, believes his hometown Philadelphia Eagles will repeat as Super Bowl champions this year, Porter has just as much confidence that his hand will be raised at the end of the night on September 8.
“I think it’s as simple as this: I have to hit him and can’t get hit. I can’t leave any rounds close and I have to be dominant. I think a dominant performance from the outside, keeping him back, the whole nine yards on top of that, let the judges see that he can’t hit me. I think that’s how you win this fight,” Porter said.
“If anybody is going to be knocked out, it’s going to be Danny. I’m going to be the one doing all the knocking out, doing all the hitting and doing all the punching.”