(Photos Courtesy of Showtime/Amanda Kwok) By Jim Dower: WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (28-0, 16 KOs) will be back in the ring this Saturday night in what he hopes will be a better fight for him than in his last one against Mauricio Herrera last March.
Garcia says he didn’t prepare for the Herrera fight the way that he should have, and that’s why he had so many problems with him. On Saturday, Garcia will be fighting Rod Salka (19-3, 3 KOs) in a catch-weight fight at 142lbs at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Salka, 28, isn’t journeyman level fighter, but he could very well be on his way to that status if he gets beaten badly by Garcia.
Garcia figures that the smaller Salka, who is moving up in weight from the 135 pound division for this fight, will be using movement to keep from getting hit by the bigger and more powerful Garcia.
“Salka is going to give it his all, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity for him to fight one of the young stars in boxing. He has nothing to lose. I’m going to have to hunt him down and rip the body, but I’m prepared for anything,” Garcia said.
This is a going to be a much different fight for Garcia than his fight against Lucas Matthysse was last year. In that fight, Garcia was the one that was being hunted down by the stronger Matthysse, and Garcia had to do a lot of moving and holding for 12 rounds to stay upright. Garcia got the win but he might not have been able to if he stood and fought Matthysse in a toe-to-toe battle.
This is a fight that Garcia is going to need to look extra good in due to his adviser Al Haymon picking out a fighter that’s not ranked highly and not even in the same division as Garcia.
When Haymon made the fight, he obviously didn’t foresee the backlash from fans about it. He perhaps thought that fans would ignore the match-up and just be happy to see Garcia fighting. Showtime seems to have misjudged the interest in the fight as well when they agreed to televise it. But that doesn’t mean that the fight won’t be a good one. Herrera and Zab Judah both gave Garcia fits, and Salka might be able to do the same if he fights over his head.
Garcia needs to try and get this fight over with as quickly as possible if he doesn’t want to take too much flak from the fans.
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