Danny Garcia vs. Lamont Peterson: Winner, Scorecard and Reaction

Danny "Swift" Garcia (30-0) eked out a majority-decision win over Lamont "Havoc" Peterson (33-3-1) in the main event of an oddly entertaining night of fights at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Earlier in the Premier Boxing Champions card Peter "Kid Chocolate" Quillin and Andy Lee fought to a rare split-decision draw.

The main event was a tale of two fights. The first half seemed to belong to Garcia, while the second half was almost all Peterson. The former did enough in the eyes of the judges to hold on for the narrow win. 

PBC has the official scorecards:

Early on, neither fighter was doing much damage, but Garcia was controlling the center of the ring as he chased Peterson from corner to corner. It was clear Peterson's game plan was to give Garcia—a notorious counter-puncher—a moving target he couldn't zero in on.

Elsa/Getty Images

It was a solid strategy as the movement seemed to frustrate Garcia, but Peterson might have been elusive to a fault. He didn't appear to mix in enough punches to satiate the judges or the fans. Boos began to ring out as Peterson did more dancing than boxing in the early rounds.

When Peterson did plant his feet, he did good work with his jab. He used the range finder a lot more from the seventh round on. That's when he really took control of the fight. Peterson began to follow up the jab with a hard, whacking right hand that moved the head of Garcia.

To the tough Puerto-Rican champion's credit, he showed off an excellent chin. Peterson landed some heavy shots and Garcia never seemed dazed or buzzed by them.

In the eighth and ninth rounds, Peterson came off his toes and gave Garcia the flat-footed scrap he seemed to want. However, Peterson looked to be the fresher fighter and he landed far more significant punches from the last four rounds.

Elsa/Getty Images

There was no question he controlled the second half of the fight. The drama was in wondering if he had dug himself too deep of a hole early, or if the judges were impressed enough with his elusiveness to award him some of the early rounds.

Peterson didn't get the breaks, but he did perform very well. You can watch the full highlights in the tweet from PBC below.

At the end of the bout he looked unmarked while Garcia's face showed he had been in a war. During the post-fight interview, Garcia all but confirmed what most expected. He was asked about a rematch with Peterson, per Isaac Estrada of Real Boxing News, Garcia answered affirmatively but gave a hint about his next move.

While Garcia came into the fight as the WBA and WBC light welterweight champion, and Peterson was the IBF title holder, neither of the men had their belts on the line. The fight was contested at a 143-pound catchweight that screamed a move up was in the works for both men.

The bigger money fights are at 147 pounds, thus it's no surprise Garcia and/or Peterson would be eyeing that division. Many fighters want to be in line to face the winner of the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao bout. More than likely, that will take place at 147 pounds.

Saturday's scrap was the rare fight that saw both fighters emerge with their reputations still intact for the most part. However, this does feel like a fight Peterson lost with bad judgement more than one Garcia took from him.

Still, Garcia got the "W." He has to start going by the moniker of "DJ Khaled," because all he does is "win, win, win, no matter what."

Follow Brian Mazique on Twitter