Keith Thurman deftly sidestepped one trap after another to outpoint Danny Garcia and shoot to the top of the welterweight pecking order.

Thurman, the undefeated puncher from Florida’s Gulf Coast nicknamed One-Time, hurt Garcia in the opening round, built an early lead on the scorecards and held on for a split decision to retain his WBA welterweight title and add Garcia’s WBC strap in a battle of unbeaten 28-year-old champions. Two ringside judges scored it for Thurman by scores of 116-112 and 115-113, while a third had it 115-113 to Garcia. (The Guardian scored it 114-114.)

“I knew that today would be the day I accomplish my dreams,” Thurman said. “People know I fought my way up the amateurs. This was the first time I fought a real undefeated fighter and I demonstrated my skills tonight. I made my team proud.”

The result marked the first loss in 34 professional fights for Garcia, a former unified champion at 140lbs who was making his first defense at welterweight since winning the vacant WBC title with a points win over Robert Guerrero.

“I came up short tonight,” Garcia said. “I thought I was the aggressor. I thought I pushed the pace. But it didn’t go my way.”

The bigger and stronger Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs) was quick to assert himself from the opening bell, throwing wide punches and with bad intentions early while Garcia fought off the back foot. But Thurman caught Garcia flush with a heat-seeking left before the round was out, sending the Philadelphia reeling backward. “It woke me up,” he said. “But it didn’t hurt me.”

Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs) absorbed the shot well and continued to contend with Thurman’s pressure in the first three rounds before a rollicking crowd of 16,533, a record turnout for boxing at Brooklyn’s five-year-old Barclays Center. Thurman’s speed and in-and-out movement disrupted Garcia’s rhythm and left him behind early on the scorecards.

He was able to score with counters and had moments in every round; Thurman just had more of them. He was first to the punch and ended the majority of the exchanges. And by the fourth round, he’d started to control the pace of the action.

By the fifth Garcia began putting his right hand out to guard against Thurman’s left hook, a tactical adjustment that seemed to tilt the momentum in his favor. Many of Garcia’s most memorable victories – knockouts over Lucas Matthysse, Amir Khan and Érik Morales – came when his opponents finally walked into the traps he patiently set. But Thurman, to his credit, refused to accommodate. It was a impressive display of situational awareness and tactical aptitude from a fighter best known for his prodigious punching power.

As the fight moved into the championship rounds, Garcia looked increasingly frustrated as Thurman was satisfied to circle and move away from his destructive left hook. That’s where Garcia was able to narrow the margin, though by then it was too little too late.

“Boxing is an art – I finessed my way to victory,” said Thurman, whose $2m purse for Saturday’s work matched Garcia’s. “I told him ahead of time: You fought Khan, he could box. You fought Matthysse, he could punch. But you never fought anybody who could box and punch at the same time.”

“It is what it is,” said Garcia, who landed 130 of 434 punches (30%) compared to 147 of 570 punches for Thurman (26%). “I can’t cry over anything, I’ll come back strong like a true champion. I would love to have a rematch to get my titles back.”

Angel Garcia, Danny’s outspoken trainer and father, expressed revulsion with the result and was less inclined to agree to a second installment.

“He ran in the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th,” Angel said. “You got to be kidding me. I’m disgusted with boxing right now. I want Danny to retire.”

Thurman was uncertain about his next opponent in the aftermath: bandying about the possibilities of a rematch with Garcia, a stay-busy fight or the winner of the just-announced May fight between Kell Brook and Errol Spence for Brook’s IBF belt. What’s far more certain is the road to welterweight consolidation now goes through him.