Showtime is televising it tonight as their main event fight. And they’re also televising another perceived mismatch between IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson and #13 IBF fringe contender Edgar Santana in the co-feature bout.
Peterson pretty much is taking the same stance as Garcia is saying that he doesn’t care what the fans and the media say, he thinks it’s a great fight in facing #13 IBF Santana. Fans might think otherwise, especially after seeing Peterson get annihilated last year by Lucas Matthysse. The fans might see this as a case of Peterson milking his title in order to try and hold onto it as long as possible before he gets beaten again once he’s in a position where he has to fight someone good.
“That’s the media’s problem,” said Garcia via Dan Rafael of ESPN, in explaining how little concern has about his opponent being out of his class. “At the end of the day, he’s got two hands, I’ve got two hands and we’re going to fight. It doesn’t matter who he is. It doesn’t matter who they put in there. It’s going to be an excellent performance, two guys going in there and giving their all and it’s going to be a great fight.”
The stance that Garcia takes towards his fight with Salka gives one the impression that he’s milking his titles, because he’s not even complaining about the match-up. Instead, he’s defending it by saying Salka has two hands. That’s got to be about the weakest excuse that a fighter could think up in trying to explain a fight that looks more like cherry picking than a quality fight.
Garcia hasn’t seemed like the same fighter since his bout against Matthysse last year in September. Garcia took some heavy shots to the head in that fight, and basically had to run and hold for the last 6 rounds of the fight to eke out a win. Garcia got a controversial knockdown in that fight when he shoved Matthysse into the ropes, causing him to get tangled there. While he was in that position, Garcia nailed the helpless Matthysse with shots until he dropped.
Referee Tony Weeks surprisingly ruled it a legit knockdown despite the push from Garcia and Matthysse being entangled in the ropes. But since that fight, Garcia has shown zero interest in wanting to get into the ring with a high caliber fighter. He fought Mauricio Herrera in a fight that was thought to be a mismatch last March in Puerto Rico, but he was clearly beaten by him and given a controversial win.
Herrera was someone that was brought in as a tune-up type fight for Garcia. Herrera had already been beaten by Mike Alvarado, so he was likely seen as a safe fight for Garcia. With Garcia unwilling to try and clear up the controversy with that fight, and not interested in fighting Matthysse again, he’s now down to fighting unranked lightweights on Showtime.
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