Unbeatens Thurman, Garcia book unification bout

NEW YORK — Undefeated Americans Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia, rival champions in a welterweight division where Manny Pacquiao and Kell Brook also claim supremacy, announced a unification fight Wednesday for their crowns.

Thurman, 27-0 with 22 knockouts, will defend his World Boxing Association crown for the third time while Garcia, 33-0 with 19 knockouts, makes his first World Boxing Council title defense.

"I will unify the titles," Thurman said. "I am the true welterweight champion."

The 28-year-old US fighters will meet March 4 at the Barclays Center in New York with the winner a potential future unification foe for either 38-year-old Filipino icon Pacquiao, the World Boxing Organization king in the weight class, or Britain's 30-year-old Brook, the International Boxing Federation champion.

After two years as an interim champion, Thurman beat US southpaw Robert Guerrero in 2015 for the crown, then kept the throne by stopping US southpaw Luis Collazo and taking a unanimous decision last June over compatriot Shawn Porter.

"I am the champ and I always will be," Thurman said. "Danny Garcia is a fighter who I've asked for and who I have respect for. But he's going to learn, just as my past opponents have, that my power and speed will rise above any swiftness he has."

(AFP)