By Rick Reeno
BoxingScene.com has been advised that the welterweight showdown between former world champions Shawn Porter (28-2-1, 17 KOs) and Danny Garcia (34-1, 20 KOs) is now being targeted to take place on September 8th, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Porter and Garcia will battle for the vacant WBC title that was vacated earlier this year by Keith Thurman, who has been inactive since March 2017.
The contest will be televised by Showtime.
Porter has been out of action since last November, when he won a twelve round unanimous decision over Adrian Granados, also at Barclays.
While Garcia was last seen fighting back in February, when he knocked out Brandon Rios in nine rounds at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
When Thurman vacated the belt - Porter and Garcia were both mandatory challengers to the belt. The WBC would order the two of them to face each other - and it was easy to reach an agreement, as both boxers are managed by Al Haymon and fight under the Premier Boxing Champions banner.
Another fight being positioned for the this card, is David Benavidez's mandatory defense of the WBC super middleweight title - against challenger Anthony Dirrell.
Benavidez (20-0, 17 KOs) captured the title last September, with a twelve round decision over Ronald Gavril. While the first fight was close, Benavidez dominated the rematch and nearly stopped Gavril when they met for a second time in February - as part of the Garcia-Rios undercard.
Dirrell (32-1-1, 24 KOs), a former WBC world champion at 168, is certainly the toughest opponent of Benavidez's career. His sole defeat was a close points loss to Badou Jack in April 2015. Since then, he's won five fights in a row. He was back in the ring on April 28th in Texas, when he won a ten round decision over Abie Han.
