By Patrick McHugh: WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) will be making his first defense of his title on November 12 against an opponent still to be determined on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV, according to Dan Rafael. Garcia’s fight will take place at the Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The name that has been mentioned recently as a possibility for Garcia’s title defense is 33-year-old light welterweight contender John Molina Jr. (29-6, 23 KOs), who has won his last two fight. Andre Berto was a name that was supposedly in the running for Garcia’s maiden defense, but it appears that fight isn’t going to happen.
It’ll be interesting if Molina gets the fight with Garcia, because he’s not ranked in the top 15 by the WBC. It wouldn’t exactly be fair to the contenders in the 147lb division if Molina can skip over them for a title shot against Garcia, but whoever said boxing was fair?
Besides, Garcia does not look solid at 147. He really struggled against Guerrero, and he also had major problems beating former IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson by a 12 round majority decision in their catchweight fight at 143 pounds last year in April 2015. Peterson wore Garcia don with pressure in the second half of the fight.
If Peterson hadn’t given Garcia so much respect in the first half of the contest, he likely would have easily beat him. There are a lot of boxing fans that felt that Peterson deserved the win over Garcia. What was interesting is that Garcia didn’t give Peterson a rematch, which you would think he should have done given how close the fight was. Instead, Garcia moved on and beat past his best 36-year-old Paulie Malignaggi by a 9th round knockout last year in August.
Malignaggi was Garcia’s first fight at the full weight of 147lbs for the welterweight division. It’s unknown why Garcia wasn’t matched against a younger more relevant welterweight instead of being put in with Malignaggi. It’s also anyone’s guess why Garcia fought Guerrero for the vacant WBC welterweight title rather than a higher ranked more qualified contender. Guerrero came into the Garcia fight having lost two out of his last four fights.
Garcia gave up his WBA and WBC light welterweight titles moved up in weight to 147 in 2015 to start campaigning as a welterweight. Some fans feel that the only reason why Garcia moved up in weight was to avoid having to face #1 WBC 140lb mandatory challenger Viktor Postol, who was breathing down his neck. Garcia swerved the Postol fight once in facing Peterson in what was initially supposed to be a unification fight.
It later turned out to be a non-title fight at a catchweight of 143lbs. Garcia never fought Postol. It’s unfortunate that Garcia didn’t take the fight with the Ukrainian fighter because there were a lot of fans that wanted to see that contest. It would have given Garcia his best opponent since his fight against Lucas Matthysse in 2013. It’s unclear whose decision it was for Garcia to give up his 140lb titles and move away from a fight against Postol. Garcia should have stayed at 140 long enough to take the fight with Poistol, because it would have been a big one.
Garcia, 28, hasn’t defended his World Boxing Council 147lb title since capturing the vacant belt last January in beating Robert Guerrero by a 12 round decision at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. California. It was not an impressive performance for Garcia, who struggled to beat Guerrero by the scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 116-112. Guerrero has since been beaten by fringe contender David Emanuel Peralta by a 12 round split decision last August.
There’s talk of Garcia possibly fighting WBA welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman in 2017 at some point in a unification fight. It’ll be big news if that fight happens, because the boxing fans would love to see a competitive fight like that rather than mismatches between Garcia and guys like Guerrero and Malignaggi.
It’s too bad a fight between Garcia and Thurman can’t take place in 2016, because it would help create a bigger star for Premier Boxing Champions to sit on top of the welterweight division. Thurman fancies himself as the best fighter in the 147lb division, but he can’t rightly make that claim without him beating guys like Danny Garcia, Manny Pacquiao, Tim Bradley, Jessie Vargas and Errol Spence. However, even if PBC manager Al Haymon puts together a fight between Garcia and Thurman, the winner of that fight likely will never get a chance at fighting Jessie Vargas, Bradley or Pacquiao due to them being with Top Rank. About the best that you can hope for with the Garcia vs. Thurman fight is they face Errol Spence Jr. or Kell Brook, which wouldn’t be bad at all.
Garcia needs to be tested at 147 so that he can find out sooner rather than later if he’s a good fit for the division. It would be better for Garcia to lose before puts too much time into the division. If Garcia gets soundly beaten at 147, then he can move back down to 140 and attempt to get his WBA title back from Ricky Burns or his WBC title from Terence Crawford.