Boxing: Unbeaten Garcia clinches WBC title

HOUSTON, Texas – Unbeaten Danny Garcia captured the World Boxing Council light welterweight world title with a 12-round unanimous decision over Erik Morales Saturday at the Reliant Arena.

“It’s been a long ride. We did it baby,” Garcia said. “Everybody wants to be champion. I knew it was going to be a bloody war. I just couldn’t let him take my dream away.”

Morales, 52-8 with 36 KOs, was stripped of his title when he exceeded the weight of 140 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in. Morales was slapped with a $50,000 fine after stepping on the scales at 142 pounds.

The 24-year-old Garcia won the fight on all three judges’ scorecards, 116-112, 117-110 and 118-109.

Garcia was the more aggressive of the two throughout the fight, knocking the 35-year-old Morales down in the 11th round with a stinging left hook to the chin.

Garcia, who fought the final few rounds with a bloody nose, raised his record to 23-0 with 14 KOs.

Garcia weighed in at 139.5 pounds for his first title fight. He needed to defeat Morales in order to claim the crown. Any other result would have left the title vacant.

“It was a difficult fight,” Morales, of Mexico, said. “His type of style gave me complications.”

The fight had been delayed from January so Morales could undergo gallbladder surgery.

Asked if he was going to continue fighting, Morales said he would take some time to ponder his future in the sport.

“I got to think about it,” he said. “To fight at this level I really have to think about it because it is my health.”