(Photo credit: Hogan Photos) By Chris Williams: WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (27-0, 16 KO’s) could have put himself in the drivers’ seat for a big money fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. (45-0, 26 KO’s) next May on the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo, but Garcia’s clinch-filled 12 round unanimous decision win over Lucas Matthysse (34-3, 32 KO’s) last night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada, wasn’t the kind of performance that will likely lead to a Mayweather fight.
The Garcia-Matthysse fight was thought ahead of time to potentially be the best fight on the card, but thanks to Garcia’s constant holding and running, it turned out to be the worst fight by far of the night.
Garcia was given the victory by the scores 115-111m 114-112, and 114-112. There was a knockdown that shouldn’t ruled a knockdown in the 11th where the referee made a mistake of giving Garcia credit for having shoved Matthysse into the ropes and hit him while he caught.
Frankly, it was incredibly boring watching Garcia run around the ring and clinch Matthysse at every opportunity.
It reminded me a lot of how Devon Alexander had beaten Marcos Maidana by holding him constantly. The Las Vegas crowd wasn’t pleased with Garcia’s constant holding and running, because they rarely cheered. In the last half of the fight, Garcia was constantly holding Matthysse, and he was putting on an exciting performance that you need to see from a fighter that is hoping to get a fight with Mayweather. Garcia just looked scared much of the time and unwilling to mix it up with Matthysse.
It looked like Garcia’s main objective was to keep Matthysse from throwing punches, and in that he accomplished that goal by grabbing him continuously. I don’t like to see fights like that, and I feel that the referee should have done something because it wasn’t boxing. That was the opposite of boxing. We didn’t see Mayweather clinching Saul “Canelo” Alvarez all night long last night. Mayweeather put on a great performance because he understood what was important.
If Garcia wants a fight with Mayweather, he needs to fight Matthysse again and show that he can beat him in an impressive fashion without running and without all the clinching. I draw a line when I see 8-10 clinches per round. To me, that’s excessive and I think the referee failed to do his job by docking points from Garcia for the holding.
I’d much rather see Mayweather fight the winner of the Amir Khan vs. Devon Alexander fight next or I wouldn’t mind seeing Mayweather face the Adrien Broner vs. Marcos Maidana winner. But for me, Danny Garcia ruined his chances for a Mayweather fight by clinching all night long and winning one of the ugliest fights on the card last night.
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