Danny "Swift" Garcia (26-0-0, 16 KO) entered Saturday night's bout with Zab "Super" Judah (42-8-2, 29 KO) as the Ring Magazine, WBA and WBC light welterweight champion, and left bloodied, battered, but with all those belts.
Garcia and Judah entered the fight with lots of bad blood stemming from a nasty promotional process that involved parking lot scuffles, insults hurled and threats of "stealing souls" made. In the ring though, the two fighters respected the sport, and each other, fighting a clean and hotly contested bout that pleased the crowd.
Garcia won a unanimous decision over Judah, who was fighting in his hometown of Brooklyn at the Barclays Center, and controlled the majority of the fight. Garcia used his thunderous right hand to wobble Judah badly in the fifth and sixth rounds, and used it again in the eighth round to floor the 35-year-old challenger.
Judah staged a valiant comeback in the final three rounds, however, using his left jab and a dormant right hook to drill Garcia with powerful shots late in the bout. Garcia ate them all however and never really appeared in danger of succumbing to the knockout.
"It was a helluva fight," Garcia said. "I had to beat the Brooklyn guy in his hometown. I knew he had a lot of pride behind him and he was never going to give up. He's a crafty veteran with a lot of power and the strongest guy I fought."
Garcia also showed respect to Judah following the fight, calling him the best fighter he's faced in his career so far and saying their bad blood is forgotten. "Regarding the bad blood: It's gone. It's a respect," Garcia said. "As you can see, it's a lot of bad blood. I've got cuts, he has cuts. We came here and gave the people of Brooklyn a nice show."
Judah was proud of his own game effort against a power puncher 10 years his junior, saying after the bout "It's boxing, things happen. You win some, you lose some. Danny is a young, tough fighter. I was on my A-game tonight. I worked hard. I had a great training camp and we gave it our best shot."
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