By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Keith Thurman didn’t win many fans Saturday night, but he won his fight against Danny Garcia.

Thurman spent much of their 12-round fight moving away from the dangerous Garcia, but won a split decision in a welterweight championship unification bout at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Judges John McKaie (116-112) and Joe Pasquale (115-113) scored the fight for Thurman, but judge Kevin Morgan credited Garcia with a 115-113 victory.

Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs, 1 NC), who was about a 2-1 favorite, defended his WBA world welterweight title and took Garcia’s WBC world welterweight championship. The Clearwater, Florida, native also dealt Garcia his first defeat in six fights at Barclays Center.

Garcia, who had beaten 10 former world champions before Thurman became the first fighter to defeat him Saturday night, fell to 33-1 (19 KOs).

The 28-year-old Thurman didn’t exactly entertain the way he did during his last CBS appearance – a unanimous-decision defeat of Shawn Porter in a 12-rounder June 25 at Barclays Center. Thurman hurt Garcia in the first round, yet mostly seemed content to stick and move his way to an uninspiring points victory against the aggressive Garcia.

“He ran half the fight,” said Angel Garcia, Danny’s father/trainer. “Boxing is about hitting, not running. Danny tried to be the aggressor, but he was just moving so much.”

The 28-year-old Garcia had won debatable majority decisions over Mauricio Herrera and Lamont Peterson in recent years, but Thurman was effective enough during the course of their 12-rounder to leave less room for interpretation on the scorecards Saturday night.

Thurman made no apologies once the decision was announced for fighting in a tactical manner, a strategy that at times drew boos from a crowd of 16,533.

“The judges are the judges,” Thurman said. “I thought I out-boxed him. I thought it was a clear victory, but Danny came to fight. I knew when it was split and I had that widespread [116-112], I knew it had to go to me.

“I was not giving that fight away. I felt like we had a nice lead, we could cool down. I felt like we were controlling the three-minute intervals every round. My defense was effective. He wasn’t landing.”

Garcia spent much of the fight following Thurman around the ring as Thurman used his quickness and athleticism to mostly remain out of Garcia’s range. When Garcia did land power punches, Thurman took those well and kept Garcia honest by firing back with his own power shots.

“We knew we had the fight won in the later rounds,” said Dan Birmingham, Thurman’s trainer. “We didn’t wanna take any chances. Keith was scoring when he was backing up, sticking and moving. There was a lot of great back and forth, but Keith was the better man tonight.”

The Garcia-Thurman fight was just the second main event broadcast by CBS in prime time since Leon Spinks upset Muhammad Ali to win the lineal heavyweight championship in February 1978.

According to unofficial CompuBox statistics, Thurman landed 147-of-570 overall punches, 17 more than Garcia (130-of-434). CompuBox credited Thurman with landing more power punches (102-of-275 to 89-of-222) and more jabs (45-of-295 to 41-of-212).

When the fight started, Thurman seemed capable of stopping Garcia.

Garcia landed a couple right hands early in the first round, but a counter left hook by Thurman wobbled Garcia just past the midway mark of the first round. Thurman followed that up with a right to the side of Garcia’s head that hurt Garcia as well, and left him holding.

Another right hand by Thurman affected Garcia later in the first round.

Garcia landed a couple right hands of his own in the second round, but didn’t hurt Thurman the way Thurman had hurt him in the first round.

Thurman landed another solid counter left hook just past the one-minute mark of the fourth round, but Garcia took that one better than in the first round. Garcia also took a hard left hand from Thurman well with less than 10 seconds to go in the fourth.

Neither fighter did much during the fifth round, but both began throwing bombs once the 10-second warning sounded in that round. There wasn’t much action during the sixth round, either, until Garcia landed a decent right hand in the final minute.

Thurman managed to land a right hand of his own just before the bell rang to end the sixth, but he didn’t have time to follow up.

Referee Michael Griffin warned Garcia twice for low blows in the seventh round, when Garcia tried his best to attack Thurman’s body. There wasn’t much action in the eighth and ninth rounds, until Thurman landed a hard right hand that started an exchange just before the end of the ninth.

Thurman landed a good right uppercut in the 10th round, but Garcia connected with a body shot just before the end of the 10th that seemed to hurt Thurman. He winced as he walked back to his corner following the end of the 10th and appeared to be trying to catch his breath in the beginning of the 11th round.

Garcia tried to hurt Thurman throughout the 12th round, but Thurman continued to move out of harm’s way.

“I thought I won the fight,” Garcia said. “I thought I was pushing the fight, but it is what it is.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.