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It was an awkward, messy and difficult to score fight last evening at Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez in Bayamon, Puerto Rico as Philadelphia’s Danny Garcia retained his WBC and WBA light welterweight belts via majority decision over California’s Mauricio Herrera.
Herrera fought the first four rounds on the backfoot, maintaining distance by retreating before the oncoming Garcia and constantly crouching and digging a jab into the pit of the champion’s stomach.
Garcia, who was fighting in front of an adoring crowd in the country of his father/trainer Angel’s birth, retaliated with sweeping left hooks and right hands that found some success early but soon Herrera, who took the big shots without even blinking, had the timing of those down to make them miss.
Herrera constantly initiated clinches any time that Garcia got in close, showing an expert level of holding and hitting as well as use of the head.
Garcia resorted to body jabs and hooks, some straying low, but had much difficulty with the challenger’s unconventional methods.
In the fifth, Herrera switched tactics by coming forward and pressuring Garcia, who fell back for the next few rounds looking for counter opportunities.
Herrera fought well behind the jab, nullifying Garcia’s left hook and landing some good right hands, although taking a few in return as well.
In the later rounds Herrera seemed to tire and the pair fought from more static positions, resulting in some good exchanges.
The 11th frame saw Garcia get Herrera on the ropes and have perhaps his best sequence of the bout, landing lefts to the body and rights to the head.
Herrera had a very good last round, landing a few eye-catching shots as Garcia mostly held or retreated, clearly looking to soak up seconds off the clock and end this difficult defense.
When the scores were read, Garcia won a majority decision on scores of 114-114, 116-112, 116-112.
Garcia improves to 28-0 (16), retaining his titles for the fourth occasion while Herrera comes up short in his first world title shot, dropping to 20-4 (7).
Given the nature of the bout and the controversial wide margins on two of the cards, a rematch on neutral ground could reasonably be expected but it is likely that Team Garcia won’t want anything more to do with the awkward and risky Herrera.
On the undercard, heavyweight knockout machine Deontay Wilder, 31-0 (31), disposed of veteran Malik Scott, 36-2-2 (13), with a single clubbing lead left hook to the temple at 1:36 of the first round.
Scott had been expected to give Wilder a stiff test, or at least make into the middle rounds, but the Philadelphian looked to be in survival mode from the first bell, throwing a single jab that missed before going down from the first power shot Wilder threw.
Wilder will now reportedly get a title shot against the winner of the Bermane Stiverne vs, Chris Arreola rematch after the pair clash for the vacant WBC title in May.
Wilder would likely be the favorite against either opponent but if the towering Alabama native, who has never been past four rounds, can’t end things early, it could be an interesting fight that might answer questions about Wilder’s chin and stamina.
There was a rematch on the bill between Juan Manuel Lopez, 34-3 (31), and Daniel Ponce De Leon, 45-6 (35), who last met in 2008 with Lopez dethroning WBO super bantam champ Ponce De Leon in the first round.
Thus time, Ponce De Leon dropped Lopez in the second only to get floored twice before the contest was waved off at 2:44 of round two.
Lopez wins the vacant WBO International super feather belt.
