(Photo credit: Lucas Noonan/Premier Boxing Champions) by Bob Smith: With this crushing defeat of former welterweight and junior welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi, the welterweight division is on notice that a new phenomenon is ready to rumble and win with Danny Garcia (31-0, 18 KOs) moving up to welterweight. The defeat was especially impressive not only because of its one sided nature, but because of the caliber of opponent he faced and defeated. Apparently, his opponent is one of the very few fighters, such as Mike Tyson, to have had a video game character based on his boxing performance, and is gifted with powers of magic inside and outside of the ring.
This one sided TKO follows a similarly impressive defeat of lightweight standout Rod Salka, who apparently is so quick he is referred to ask lightning. One might ask how it would be possible for anyone to defeat a boxer who in turn contends with and quickly overcomes both lightening and magic with ease?
However, one common theme among his two most impressive recent victories has been the punching power of his opponents. Rod “lightening rod” Salka was a lightweight wholly outside of his division who has a grand total of one knockout in 24 fights. Similarly, feather-fisted Malignaggi has only 7 KOs in 40 fights, and lost two of his last three fights before facing Garcia. Thus, the combined KO ratio of his two most impressive victories in the last year and a half totals 12.5%.
Also, he holds quite questionable “wins” over both Mauricio Herrera and Lamont Peterson. Many questioned the decision in his favor in Puerto Rico and the consensus seems to be that it was a call for a hometown in a close fight that arguably he lost. A similar claim could be made for the fight against Lamont Peterson, which I did not believe was close at all, and should have been a clear Peterson victory. In other words, he could very well have two defeats on his record were it not for gift decisions and/or official corruption.
What then are his most recent strengths that were shown in his recent fights? Certainly “stone feet” Garcia, who has far less movement and fluidity than even Alvarez cannot be said to count speed among his strong points. Yet his power is not that impressive either, at least in the welterweight division. His best asset is his timing and sense of poise and ring generalship. However, while he stood out in the junior welterweight division in these traits, the elite fighters in welterweight have this talent in roughly the same degree or greater degree.
While he might be a top 20 welterweight now, he is nowhere near the top and probably should go back down to 140. I highly doubt he beats either Provodnikov or Matthyse again if he does. How would he fare against the top welterweights?
Floyd Mayweather – obvious victory, no need to comment
Manny Pacquaio – he can handle neither the speed nor power nor timing nor combination of Pacquaio, who can be expected to knock him out within 6-8 rounds or at a minimum knock him down several times en route to a clear decisions.
Keith Thurman – this is unquestionably a KO win for Thurman, and Danny Garcia will avoid him like the plague for years guaranteed
Marcos Maidana – another KO victory, Garcia would simply not be able to handle the size, poise, power and unorthodox brawling techniques of a Maidana who will come into the ring in the low to mid 160s.
Amir Khan – though he did defeat Khan, Khan has improved since then; he retains his speed and combinations, and would coast to a points victory because of his clear defensive/clinching oriented strategy. However, he would ahve some chance in this fight.
Shawn Porter – like Danny Garcia but better, more aggressive, a harder puncher and with more power. The only way to beat Porter is with speed and movement, and Garcia has neither.
Timothy Bradley – too much skill, poise, ring generalship, toughness and experience with top fighters for Garcia. Bradley would find ways to take away the strengths of Garcia and cruise to a UD victory.
Brandon Rios – kind of a bigger version of Danny Garcia, with equal speed and movement, and about the same power, but far less technique. Danny Garcia would have some chance against Brandon Rios and perhaps even be expected to win, provided that he can handle the size and style of Rios. On the other hand, even Pacquiao could not knock Rios down, so it might well prove to be a long difficult night for Garcia.
Diego Chaves – very underrated, and far more skilled than Garcia. It is an easy UD win for him.
Ray Robinson – a top contender, who he might well be favored to beat. On the other hand, the only loss or Ray Robinson at welterweight is to Shawn Porter, and even that was by decision.
Yet even this excludes other prominent fighters like Algieri, Broner, Guerrero, Saddam Ali, and Andre Berto, all of whom could be expected to provide Garcia with a stiff challenge if not be outright favored to beat him.
Given this, it is almost certain that Danny Garcia will fight Brandon Rios next, if he can get the fight, for Rios is the one top ten welterweight who he does have a good chance of beating. If I were Garcia, I would avoid any fighter in the division with speed, movement, or power (pick one). He might be able to use his ring generalship to defeat a plodding Rios but any other welterweight mentioned above would likely have too much speed and movement for him, and in many cases, too much power also.
I wrote a similar article about Adrien Broner who moved up after he faced and narrowly defeated Malignaggi.
http://www.boxingnews24.com/2013/05/broner-malignaggi-problems-for-the-problem/
Unfortunately, Garcia did not learn this lesson, however, “experience is a hard school, but fools learn in no other” (Benjamin Franklin). We will all get to see this overrated fool learn in the school of experience, it appears within the next year or so.
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