WBA refuses Danny Garcia vs. Robert Guerrero for vacant super title

By Boxing News - 01/09/2016 - Comments

garcia6655By Dan Ambrose: According to ESPN Deportes, World Boxing Association president Gilberto Mendoza Jr. has turned down a request from Premier Boxing Champions [PBC] for the WBA Super welterweight title to be up for grabs in the Danny Garcia (31-0, 18 KOs) vs. Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (33-3-1, 18 KOs) fight on January 23rd at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

The WBA reportedly is on the verge of dropping Floyd Mayweather Jr. as their “Super World” welterweight champion due to inactivity and him being retired. The WBA is said to be taking Mayweather’s titles at 147 and 154 at the end of January.

It makes sense that the WBA wouldn’t let the winner of the Guerrero vs. Garcia fight be the new “Super World” champion, because neither of them has done a lot lately in the division.

If the Premier Boxing Champions wants to make Danny Garcia a world champion at 147, they would be better off matching him against someone credible like Errol Spence Jr. or Shawn Porter rather than putting him in with old shot fighters in sure thing fights. Garcia would be seen as a valid champion if he could be the likes of Spence or Porter for one of the belts rather than fighting a guy that is seen as over-the-hill by a lot of fans.

The only thing that Garcia has done in the welterweight division is beat a best his prime Paulie Malignaggi, Lamont Peterson and little Rod Salka. Garcia’s fights against Salka and Peterson were catch-weights fights at 142 for Salka and 143 for Peterson.

It would have looked REALLY bad if Danny Garcia was given the WBA “Super” welterweight title off of a win over the 33-year-old Guerrero, who a lot of boxing fans see as a shot fighter. Garcia would have been able to shoot above WBA “regular” champion Keith “One Time” Thurman for the spot. Both Garcia and Thurman are with Al Haymon of PBC.

Garcia wouldn’t have had to do much to get the spot, and it would have likely cheapened the WBA “super” welterweight in the minds of some boxing fans to see how easy it was for Garcia to win it. Garcia is favored to defeat Guerrero, who has lost 2 out of his last 4 fights.

The fight is seen as a mismatch by a lot of boxing fans due to how bad Guerrero has looked recently. Garcia didn’t look so great either in his fight against Lamont Peterson last year. After that close call decision, Garcia was fed the past his best light hitting 35-year-old Malignaggi last August and he promptly made easy work of him in stopping the Showtime announcer in the 9th round.

It’s likely that Garcia will eventually pick up the WBC welterweight title that is now vacant. Garcia likely won’t have to do much to get that belt, because #1 WBC Amir Khan doesn’t seem all that interested in fighting for the belt despite him being ranked so highly by the WBC.

Instead of Garcia-Guerrero winner being promoted to the WBA “Super World” welterweight champion, it’s believed that the current WBA “regular” welterweight champion Thurman will be promoted to Mayweather’s spot as the WBA’s “Super World” champion. As for the “regular” WBA belt, it’s probable that the interim WBA welterweight champion David Avanesyan (27-1-1, 11 KOs) will be elevated into the title spot without having to fight anyone for it.

That would be a controversial move in itself, because the 27-year-old Avanesyan has never fought anyone remotely good during his seven-year pro career. Avanesyan recently won the interim WBA 147lb title in beating 36-year-old Charlie Navarro by a 9th round knockout last November.

Navarro is a familiar name to some hardcore boxing fans, who remember him as the guy that fought former WBA World welterweight champion Vyacheslav Senchenko for his title six years ago in 2010 and was beaten by a 12 round unanimous decision. Navarro came into the fight with 2 defeats in his last 4 fights, and a lot of boxing fans wondered why Navarro was being given a world title shot with a record like that.

WBA “regular” junior middleweight champion Erislandy Lara will likely be elevated into the WBA “Super World” 154lb spot that was held by Mayweather. With Lara recently saying he’s thinking of moving up to middleweight, it’s unknown whether he’ll be sticking around for long to enjoy his new status as the “Super” WBA junior middleweight champion. Lara’s “regular” WBA 154lb spot is expected to be filled by interim WBA junior middleweight champion Jack Culcay (21-1, 10 KOs). The thing about Culcay is he’s got as much a padded resume as Avanesyan does. There are no real quality guys on Culcay’s resume. It’s sad and disappointing to see the lack of talent when looking at Culcay’s resume. As Gertrude Stein once said “There’s no there there.”



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