De La Hoya: These matches [Garcia-Salka & Peterson-Santana] were made for a reason

By Boxing News - 07/29/2014 - Comments

delahoya56By Dan Ambrose: Golden Boy Promotions President Oscar De La Hoya did his best this past week in trying to justify the reasoning for the August 9th mismatches on Showtime between WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (28-0, 16 KOs) and unranked lightweight Rod Salka (19-3, 3 KOs) and IBF welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (32-2-1, 16 KO’s) and #12 WBA, #13 IBF fringe contender Edgar Santana (29-4, 20 KOs) from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

The only excuse that De La Hoya could come up with is that it was a way of testing Garcia and Peterson, by matching them against guys that have virtually no chance of beating them.

“These matches were made for a reason to test the champions,” De La Hoya said in giving a reason for the August 9th mismatches on Showtime. “You never know whose going to win. You’re one punch away from being upset. These B-side fighters are the real deal. They’re training hard. They know it’s their opportunity. They’re one punch away from making history. People have made a mistake of labeling the underdogs as fighters with no chance.”

De La Hoya could have come up with something better than this, couldn’t he? This statement is like something that he rambled off from the top of his head without thinking it through clearly before he spit it out. How are going to test Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson by putting them in with guys that have no chance of beating them?

The first part of what De La Hoya said would make sense if they were being tested against some guys with a fighting chance of beating them like Viktor Postol, Lucas Matthysse, Ruslan Provodnikov or Mauricio Herera. But for De La Hoya to match Garcia and Peterson against Salka and Santana and say he’s doing it to “test the champions” is a pretty sad excuse for making the fights.

Salka and Santana only have a puncher’s chance of winning these fights, and Salka, with his 3 career knockouts, doesn’t even have a puncher’s chance. De La Hoya is basically saying Salka and Santana only have a puncher’s chance when he says “They’re one punch away from making history.” So if you break that down, De La Hoya is pretty much giving Salka and Santa a puncher’s chance of beating Garcia and Peterson. Great fights.



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