Danny Garcia vs. Lamont Peterson had 3.4 million viewers on PBC on NBC

By Boxing News - 04/13/2015 - Comments

garcia25By Dan Ambrose: Last Saturday’s fight between WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (30-0, 17 KOs) and IBF 140lb champion Lamont Peterson (33-3-1, 17 KOs) was a huge success on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC. The fight brought a peak of 3.4 million viewers on NBC, according to Fight news.

The fight averaged 2.9 million. That figure makes the Garcia vs. Peterson fight the second highest watched fight in the last 17 years. That’s pretty impressive to say the least.

The Garcia-Peterson fight took place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Garcia won the fight by a somewhat controversial 12 round majority decision by the scores 114-114, 115-113 and 115-113. Even if you agreed with the decision, and there were many boxing fans who didn’t, you have to agree that Garcia did not shine in the fight.

This was definitely not his finest hour of his pro career, as Peterson came on strong in the 2nd half of the fight and landed the more telling blows. The way Peterson dominated Garcia in the second half of the fight was a lot more impressive and one-sided than the way that Garcia got the better of Peterson in the 1st half of the fight.

Garcia really wasn’t landing a lot of shots in the first half of the fight mainly because of Peterson’s movement and excellent defense. Garcia’s shots were hitting mostly air with an occasional punch connecting with Peterson’s head or body. Garcia had a lot more luck landing body shots than he did with head shots. However, Peterson paid Garcia back when he threw to the body, and this cancelled out a lot what Garcia was doing.

With the high ratings, which obviously dwarf the numbers that HBO and Showtime fights typically get, there might be some interest from NBC in a rematch between Peterson and Garcia. Peterson wants a rematch because he feels like he’s got Garcia’s number now after dominating the second half of the fight. However, Garcia is leaving it up to his manager Al Haymon and the network whether they want to see a rematch between him and Peterson. At the end of the day, Haymon will likely make the decision whether there should be a rematch or not.

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Haymon seems to be building Garcia up to get a big fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr in the future. For that reason I don’t think that Haymon will green light a second fight between Garcia and Peterson. Garcia will probably move up in weight to 147 and take a couple of stay busy fights against fringe contenders to pad his resume with. They will then likely take the fight against Mayweather. It’s also quite possible that Garcia would wind up getting a shot against Mayweather if he defeats Manny Pacquiao in their fight on May 2nd. If there’s not a rematch between Mayweather and Pacquiao, then I can see Haymon setting up the Mayweather vs. Garcia fight so that the fight is made while Garcia is still undefeated.

Garcia doesn’t look solid enough to beat the best fighters at 147, or even some of the best fighters at 140. Light welterweight Adrien Broner wants to fight Garcia after watching his fight against Peterson. Marcos Maidana wants to fight Garcia as well.



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