By Allan Fox: Unbeaten WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (30-0, 17 KOs) says he wants to defend his two 140 pound titles in July in his hometown of Philadelphia rather than moving up to the welterweight division for his next fight.
Garcia, 27, says he’d be open to facing former three division world champion Adrien Broner (30-1, 22 KOs) next in July if he’s game.
Garcia sees it as a business thing and he wouldn’t mind facing the 25-year-old Broner even though the two of them are friends with each other. Broner is scheduled for a fight on June 20th in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. For Broner to be available for a fight against Danny Garcia in July, Broner would either need to cancel the June 20th fight or get his opponent out of there quickly so that there’s no risk of him suffering an injury and missing out on the Garcia fight.
“Like I said, he’s [Broner] a cool guy, business is business, but I say we can do it next in Philadelphia for all the marbles in July,” Garcia said via Fighthype. “I want to defend my titles in Philadelphia. I think I owe my fans in Philadelphia a title defense in a big fight. If I can’t make that happen, then we’ll look to go up to 147, but I really want to defend my titles at 140 in Philadelphia.”
Putting together a fight between Garcia and Broner would likely be a fairly simple thing, as both guys share the same adviser in Al Haymon. If it’s a fight that Haymon wants to put together, I’m sure he’ll make the fight. He could put the fight on Premier Boxing Champions on NBC. It would likely draw huge ratings. The question will Haymon want to make that fight.
Garcia struggled to beat Lamont Peterson in his last fight in April in winning a 12 round majority decision. Garcia feels that he won a convincing decision despite many boxing fans thinking Garcia lost the fight. As far as a rematch goes, Garcia said he would do it if there’s interest in the fight, but he thinks he won the fight.
I don’t know that we’re going to see Garcia and Peterson again because the fight was too close. I got the impression that the fight was put together with the intention of Garcia shinning in a showcase fight. When it turned out to be a case of Peterson being on the verge of winning it in the last three rounds, I don’t think that’s what was expected when the fight was put together. If there’s a rematch you would have to favor Peterson because he knows how to beat Garcia now by pressuring him, and he likely would be doing that from the first bell. I don’t think Garcia can beat Peterson if he puts the kind of pressure on him like he was doing in the second half of their fight last month.
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