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On October 25, Showtime announced several fights to take place towards the end of 2016 and early 2017. One of them was the much anticipated welterweight unification fight between García and fellow undefeated welterweight champion Keith Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs), who holds the WBA title. García defeated journeyman Samuel Vargas in a tune-up fight on November 12, which officially set up the fight for March 4, 2017 at the Barclays Center in New York City. Thurman chose not to have any tune-up and would fight García after a long 9 month rest. At a press conference on January 18, 2017 the fight was officially announced and it was said that it would be shown live on CBS. The conference got extremely heated, leading to Angel García standing up and shouting racial slurs towards Thurman.