be at stake for the fight. Garcia weighed in a career high 139.5 pounds and more than Broner, who weighed 138.7 pounds. Garcia won the fight by unanimous decision with the three judges scoring the fight 117–111, 116–112, and 116–112. The fight started tentatively, with both boxers landing few punches in the opening round. But over the course of the fight, Garcia took over and by the championship rounds he was significantly outpacing Broner in punches landed and thrown. ESPN scored the fight 120–108 shutout win for Garcia. In the post fight interviews, Garcia praised his performance and Broner, "This is definitely one of my best performances ever. I think I controlled the fight in the early rounds and I kept the activity up. [Broner] is a great fighter who has great skills. I was the superior fighter tonight." Broner was humble in defeat, but stated that he had to catch Garcia, who he claimed was running: "It was a good fight. At the end of the day, I come to fight, I come to win and I put my heart on the line. It was Tom & Jerry – I had to catch the mouse." It was Broner's first loss at light welterweight. Both fighters earned a $1 million purse for the fight. CompuBox punch statistics showed that Garcia was the more active boxer, landed 244 of 783 punches (31%), Broner landed only 125 of 400 shots thrown (31%). The fight drew an average 881,000 viewers on Showtime and peaked at 937,000 viewers, making it the most watched fight on Showtime since Deontay Wilder defeated Bermane Stiverne to win the WBC heavyweight title in January 2015. That fight drew an average of 1.24 million. Broner vs. Vargas On November 5, 2017, according to Alex Vaysfeld, manager of IBF light welterweight champion Sergey Lipinets (13-0, 10 KOs), Broner was being targeted as a first defence for March 2018. Lipinets won the then-vacant title on November 4 against Japanese boxer Akihiro Kondo. On December 18, The Ring TV reported that a deal was being discussed which would match Broner against Omar Figueroa Jr. (27-0-1, 19 KOs) on Showtime in the Spring of 2018. On January 24, Showtime announced Broner vs. Figueroa would take place on April 21 at the Barclays Center in New York. On March 4, Figueroa pulled out of the fight after injuring his shoulder in training. PBC stated