By Dan Ambrose: WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) says he’s ready to face #3 WBC Andre Berto following his fourth round knockout win over Victor Ortiz last Saturday night on Premier Boxing Champions on Fox at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
The win for Berto was an impressive won because he turned back the clock with the victory. It was easily the best performance from the 32-year-old Berto since his win over former IBF welterweight champion Jan Zaveck in 2011.
Garcia, 28, was working for PBC last night as a commentator and he said immediately that he’s ready to fight Berto.
“We’re managed by the same person [Al Haymon]. Let’s make it happen,” said Garcia on Fox.
This isn’t the fight that the fans want to see from Garcia. They want to see him take on a difficult guy like Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Errol Spence. Haymon works with both of those guys, but he’s not likely to feed Garcia against a guy like Spence because it would be game over for Garcia. He would likely lose so badly that it would hurt his future popularity.
“I need that Danny Garcia fight. I want that WBC title back. I guess I got his impression since he was at ringside,” said Berto.
Mayweather could come back at some point to fight Garcia if he gets the urge. It wouldn’t be a good fight because Garcia isn’t that skilled, and probably wouldn’t bring in a lot of PPV buys either because the fans would see it as a mismatch like they did with the Mayweather vs. Berto fight last September. The fights that the fans want to see from Mayweather are ones where he has a chance of losing.
Garcia would be a lateral move for Mayweather from his mismatch against Berto. It wouldn’t be a step up or a step down for Mayweather. It would be a lateral move, which is why I think it would be a disaster for Mayweather to take that fight.
As long as he got his money up front with a guaranteed nine-figure payday from one of the networks, then he would do fine. But if the network insisted on Mayweather earn his money through PPV sales, then I think the fight would be a huge dud with Mayweather vs. Garcia lucky if it generates 250,000 buys.
Garcia has had a couple of easy fights in a row after his scare last year against Lamont Peterson. Garcia was fortunate to win that fight because Peterson put a ton of pressure on him in the last half of the fight to make it close. In Garcia’s two recent fights, Garcia beat Paulie Malignaggi and Robert Guerrero. Those two didn’t have the punching power to put Garcia in any danger.
Berto is a different story. If Berto can avoid getting knocked out by one of Garcia’s powerful left hooks. Berto would have as good a chance of beating Garcia as Lamont Peterson did. Garcia has shown already that he’s got a flaws in his game, and fighting in the wrong division. Garcia dominated at 140 against the guys he fought, but he’s not the same fighter in the 147lb division and he likely won’t be able to recapture the form that he had in light welterweight division.