By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – He wasn’t hurt.

That was Danny Garcia’s contention in the aftermath of his split-decision defeat to Keith Thurman in their welterweight title unification fight Saturday night at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Thurman caught Garcia with a counter left hook with just under a minute left in the first round, and followed up with a pair of right hands that left Garcia holding briefly near a corner.

Garcia said he wasn’t as hurt as he might’ve looked to fans and media in the arena and television viewers.

“He hit me with a good shot in the first round,” Garcia said. “It really didn’t hurt me. It woke me up, you know, because I’m a slow starter sometimes. But he hit me a good shot. It didn’t hurt me like I was dazed or nothing. But my dad told me to tighten up my defense, tighten up my defense, you know, because he was jumping in with the hook. So I tried to stay in the pocket and wait till he came in to land some shots.”

Thurman didn’t really seem to affect Philadelphia’s Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs) with any of his punches thereafter the way he did during the first round. Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs, 1 NC), who won Garcia’s WBC world welterweight title and defended his WBA world welterweight championship, replied, “I don’t care,” when he was told Garcia said he wasn’t hurt in the first round.

“I think we definitely opened up his eyes really quick,” Thurman said. “I felt like there was an ability [to stop Garcia], but the extra punches weren’t being landed. He was doing a lot of pulling back, you know? He was taking a little bit off of some things, but I startled him. I came out a little aggressive, maybe more aggressive. It’s easy to shock a fighter off that, because they don’t understand your speed, they don’t understand your power, they don’t understand how to time you just yet. And I think that’s how I was able to get Danny Garcia in the first round.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.