Sports

Garcia tops Judah to retain Unified Super Lightweight Title

Zab Judah and Danny Garcia could not wait to get into the ring with one another.

After months of buildup and near brawls, the two fighters finally got their chance, with Garcia winning by way of unanimous decision to retain the Unified Super Lightweight Title at Barclays Center on Saturday night.

The fight, which lived up to the intense buildup that came with it, was very back and forth between the two fighters, but in the end Garcia (26-0, 16 KOs) was able to best the crafty veteran.

“It was a hell of a fight,” Garcia said. “I knew he was never going to give up and I had to beat a hometown guy in his hometown.”

Garcia won on all three scorecards (116-111, 115-112, 114-112), but Judah (42-8, 29 KOs) felt the fight was more evenly matched.

“I thought the scores were closer than they actually were,” Judah said.

Sporting the nickname “Swift,” Garcia was not quick enough early in the fight to tag Judah with one of his patented sweeping hooks. Nearly every time Garcia would load up and go for a right hook, Judah would be one step ahead and duck under the punch.

Judah, perhaps targeting a rib injury that Garcia suffered earlier in the year, focused mostly on body punches in the fight’s early rounds. After losing the first, Judah would win back-to-back rounds in the second and third.

In the fourth, Garcia would finally start to connect with his power punches, but Judah would not let up. After getting hit with a big left hook, Judah smiled and trashed talked at Garcia, but in the fifth Garcia would land the first major blow of the fight, connecting on a right hook that wobbled Judah’s legs sending him into the corner.

Smelling blood, Garcia came out in the sixth and went right after Judah with a series of punches that sent Judah into the corner and the once pro-Judah crowd into a roar of Danny chants. Judah would spend the majority of the round attempting to wrap up Garcia and would again get tagged and nearly knocked down by a heavy right.

The fight’s first knockdown came in the eighth round after Garcia connected on a right that sent Judah sprawling to the mat and opened a cut under his left eye.

Judah, possibly sensing he was down on points, rebounded in the tenth and eleventh, landing staggering lefts and for the first time all night, looking like he was the better fighter. At the end of the tenth round, Judah taunted Garcia by smiling and sticking his tongue out at him and his corner.

“He hit me with a good shot but I’m a true champion and worked through that moment,” Garcia said.

Garcia came in as the Unified Super Lightweight Champion, sporting a perfect 25-0 record (16 KOs), including an impressive knockout win over Erik Morales in the first ever fight at Barclays Center last October. The Philadelphia-born fighter successfully defended his title twice in 2012.

The bout, originally scheduled for February 9, had to be delayed after Garcia suffered the aforementioned rib injury in the weeks leading up to the fight. The injury became the topic of discussion as Judah claimed Garcia was faking the ailment due to his lack of preparation.

Judah’s comments came just weeks after he and Garcia’s trainer and father Angel Garcia nearly came to blows at the fight’s announcement last December. Since then there has been plenty of back and forth between the two camps, including another near brawl earlier in the week that led to Garcia and Judah having separate pre-fight press conferences.

“To me, it’s gone, it’s respect [now],” Garcia said.

The fight was Judah’s first in over a year. The Brooklyn native defeated Vernon Paris last March by ninth round TKO. The fight was the 50th decision of Judah’s legendary career, but not his last.

“You’re going to see me fighting again,” Judah said. “Why would I quit?”

***

In the undercard fight, New York native Peter “Kid Chocolate” Quillin improved his undefeated record and retained his WBO Middleweight Title, picking up a seventh round TKO against Fernando Guerrero.

Quillin (29-0, 21 KOs) attempted to make quick work of Guerrero, knocking down the Maryland fighter twice in the second round with a series of vicious right hooks. Fifteen of Quillin’s 29 victories have ended in either the first or second rounds.

“A lot of my fights have ended in the first round,” Quillin said. “So when a fighter goes past those first two rounds, I know he can fight.”

Guerrero (25-2, 19 KOs) would bounce back in the third round and fourth. Giving up two inches in height and five inches in reach to Quillin, Guerrero attempted to fight in close quarters and was doing a good job for most of the fourth round.

Quillin repeatedly pushed away Guerrero, keeping him at a distance, before landing a massive right that wobbled Guerrero’s legs in the closing seconds out the fourth round.

“I stuck to the gameplan and my corner kept telling me what to do,” Quillin said.

In the fifth, Quillin appeared to be favoring his left side, protecting his ribcage from body blows as Guerrero aggressively went on the attack. As Guerrero began to land more punches, his confidence went up as well, going so far as to do a shake taunt to throw off Quillin in the sixth.

After losing his first two rounds of the fight on The Post’s scorecard, Quillin seemed to be losing momentum before he finished off Guerrero in the seventh. After knocking him down earlier in the round, Quillin landed a brutal right uppercut and a series of right hooks, sending Guerrero to the mat and causing the referee to stop the fight.

“I felt like everything was in slow motion because I know what I was doing,” Quillin said.

asulla-heffinger@nypost.com