Shawn Porter (28-2-1) vs Danny Garcia (34-1-0)
Showtime executive Stephen Espinoza has revealed the fight between Danny "Swift" Garcia and Shawn "Showtime" Porter is to be announced soon. It will also be for the WBC welter-weight title Keith "One Time" Thurman recently vacated after yet another injury.
It's a real shame that Thurman won't be able to defend his WBC crown in the ring, and instead two names he already has wins against will fight it out for the belt..
Danny Garcia is the guy who Keith Thurman beat for the WBC title only last year, unifying it with his WBA strap. Thurman also got the decision against Shawn Porter in a competitive dust-up back in 2016. Porter has been hounding Thurman for a rematch ever since, working his way back up the rankings to become mandatory challenger for the WBC.
Keith Thurman has been injured a lot in the last couple of years and doesn't seem too interested in rushing back from elbow surgery to take hard fights. He also got married recently, and some people think he might have lost a bit of focus on his career.
Before his latest injury, Thurman said he wanted at least one or two tune ups before giving either Shawn Porter or Danny Garcia a rematch. And that's before even considering taking on the most dangerous fighters in the 147 lb division such as Terence Crawford or Errol Spence Jr, who currently holds the IBF belt.
We might have to wait a long time for a clash between the top fighters at 147lbs - Errol Spence Jr and Keith Thurman..
Whoever does pick up the vacant WBC title, probably won't be recognized as a legitimate champ by the critics unless they attempt to unify the division by challenging Errol Spence Jr, or the eventual winner between Terence Crawford and WBO title holder Jeff Horn. But they could also play it safe and milk the belt with voluntary defenses until Thurman returns from injury.
Danny Garcia made his name by beating Amir Khan in a upset back in 2012 to unify the light welter-weight division. He was then carefully matched, stacking up victories against names that look good on his record like Paulie Malinaggi, Erik Morales and Zab Judah. But in reality these fighters were well past their peak at that point. He also has wins against Lucas Matthyse and Lamont Peterson, who are decent enough gate keepers at world level but quite limited as boxers.
Danny Garcia already lifted a vacant WBC belt at welter-weight in 2016 against an over-the-hill Robert Guerrero, who retired after going on to lose his next 2 fights. When Garcia finally faced a prime Keith Thurman he was convincingly beaten over 12 rounds. Even if his controversial father and trainer Angel Garcia still believes his son got robbed for some reason..
Garcia made his comeback recently against former light-weight belt holder Brandon Rios in an entertaining bout. But it wouldn't have been enough to earn him this title fight if it wasn't for the fact that Thurman is now injured and all the elite names in the division such as Terence Crawford, Errol Spence Jr and Manny Pacquiao are already committed to other dates in the coming months.
Shawn Porter is a former IBF champion who was once highly rated until he lost his title to Kell Brook in 2014. Since then Porter has only been knocking on the door at the elite level. He does have wins against Adrian Broner and Andre Berto, either side of the loss to Keith Thurman, where he challenged unsuccessfully for the WBA belt.
As mentioned above, Porter is now in position as No. 1 contender for the WBC, so at least he has earned another shot at the title. Unlike Danny Garcia, who took a year off after losing his undefeated record against Keith Thurman, before that come back fight against the faded Brandon Rios who is really a natural light-weight..