By Felipe Leon
In what many hoped and expected to be an all-out slugfest, Philadelphia's Danny "Swift" Garcia (27-0, 16KOs) put the finishing touches on his run in the junior welterweight division by erasing all doubt in his win over Lucas "The Machine" Matthysse (34-3, 32KOs) of Argentina via a unanimous decision in the semi-main event of "The One". The 12-round championship fight was for Garcia's WBC and WBA titles while Matthysse held the WBC silver strap. Many fans and experts believed that this fight and not the Mayweather-Alvarez bout was the fight of the night and although it did not live up to the all-action war that was expected, the championship fight still delivered.
Previous to the match up, both fighters were on impressive runs with the undefeated Garcia defeating Erik Morales twice, the second time by brutal knockout, Amir Khan by 4th round stoppage and in his last fight, former champion Zab Judah via unanimous decision. Matthysse had been terrorizing the division with brutal knockouts of all his most recent opponents, stringing together since stoppages since his last loss, a controversial split decision to Devon Alexander back in 2011.
As soon as the first bell rung, the arena grew surprisingly quiet as the sold-out crowd waited on bated breath for the first big fight. Both fighters threw a left hooks mid-way through the round as Garcia moved defensively around the ring.
Matthysse struck first with a left hook in the second and seconds later another hook followed by his money punch, the right hand. Garcia took it in stride and escaped when the hard-hitting Argentine attempted to trap him in the red corner.
Both went to the body often and early in the fight but really were looking for the appropriate range to land power shots to the head. Matthysse seemed to have trouble finding his distance for much of the fight, missing his big right hands by inches, as Garcia pivoted well and gave his opponent different angles.
The pace quickened and more punches where thrown and landed in the fourth as a heated exchange broke out. Garcia was successful in catching Matthysse on his way in as he unleashed a four punch combo to the body then scoring an over hand right.
Things got even more complicated in the seventh for Matthysse as a straight jab early in the round caused a mouse under his right eye. After a number of left hooks by Garcia, his eye had completely closed by the end of the heat. With only one eye, Matthysse had trouble defending against one of Garcia's best weapons, the left hook, and Garcia began insisting more with the punch.
By the eleventh Garcia was cruising to a defining win but Matthysse gave it one last push as he came out hard looking for a big punch to land. He did in the early seconds of the round as a big right hand knocked out Garcia's mouthpiece and sent it flying across the ring. Once the action resumed, Matthysse scored again forcing Garcia to clinch. With the crowd on its feet, Matthysse kept coming forward looking to finish the fight but Garcia had other plans.
As the Argentine came after him, Garcia turned him near the ropes and proceeded to land a left hook, followed by a right hand and then another left hook that put Matthysse down on the canvas.
The knockdown sealed the deal for Garcia and proved that he is truly the best 140 pounder in the world. With the fight pretty much in his pocket, Garcia clinched for the majority of the first half of the twelfth and final round but still was able to score a good four punch combination and then followed it with another flurry of punches. A flagrant low blow by Garcia nullified the knockdown of the previous round as referee Tony Weeks took off a point from the Philadelphia fighter. Surprisingly, in the last ten seconds of the fight, Garcia decided to trade with Matthysse who at first looked confused by the tactic and then was more than happy to oblige all the way to the final bell.
Judges Robert Hoyle and Juergen Langos both saw it 114-112 while Glenn Trowbridge scored it a slightly wider 115-111, all for the unified WBA and WBC light welterweight champion Danny "Swift" Garcia.
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