By Eric Baldwin: Danny Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) successfully weighed in on Friday at 146.6 pounds for his 10 round non-title bout at welterweight against Samuel Vargas (25-2-1, 13 Kos) for their fight on Saturday night on Spike on Premier Boxing Champions at the Liacouras Center, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Vargas weighed in at 145.7lbs. Garcia’s WBC welterweight title will not be on the line for this fight. This fight is a tune-up for the 28-year-old Garcia to get him ready for a unification fight against WBA champion Keith Thurman next year in March. Garcia is at a point where he doesn’t really need to take any more tune-ops.
(Photo credit: Ryan Hafey/Premier Boxing Champions)
What he needs are quality opponents, because he’s slowed his own popularity by failing to take on the best fighters in the last three years. It’s unfortunate. If this was Garcia’s management’s idea for him to face the lesser fighters for three years, then he should have taken charge of his own career and insisted on facing the best.
You hate to see fighters making the wrong career moves by stunting their careers by fighting weak opposition like we’ve seen with Garcia. The zenith point of Garcia’s career came in 2013 when he beat Lucas Matthysse by a 12 round decision.
It wasn’t a pretty fight to watch, because Garcia three low blows for 12 rounds, and did a lot of moving and holding, but he got the win. Since that high point in his career, Garcia has beaten Maruricio Herrera [controversially], Rod Salka, Lamont Peterson, Paulie Malignaggi, and Robert Guerrero. I hate to describe those fighters as weak opposition, but that’s the reality of the situation. Rod Salka and Mauricio Herrera were not considered to be the best at 140. Salka was a lightweight, not a light welterweight. Malignaggi, Peterson and Guerrero certainly weren’t the best welterweights. They were just normal contenders, but not real talented ones. Garcia still fought them instead of the better fighters.
Vargas, 27, has won his last five fights since being stopped in the 4th round last year by Errol Spence in April 2015. It’s good news that Vargas has won his last five fights, but here are the fighters that he’s beaten: Juan Armando Garcia, Edgar Ortega, Robson Assis, Ulises Jimendez and Cesar Chavez. Those are not top fighters at 147. You can argue that Vargas shouldn’t be ranked in the top 15 a all based on the low level of opposition he’s faced.
Of course, if Vargas wasn’t ranked in the top 15, then Garcia would likely not be fighting him. At least with Vargas technically ranked as a contender in the welterweight division; it gives Garcia the excuse to fight him. That obviously helps, but it doesn’t help him in the long term. Ultimately, it’s Garcia who will be the one who will need to be ready for his fight against Thurman next year.
If Garcia is under-prepared due to the weak opposition he’s faced, then it will be him who will be hurt. You can’t say that Thurman won’t be ready, because he’s coming off of a grueling 12 round decision win over Shawn Porter last summer. That was a very close fight for Thurman. He showed that he’s a real warrior.
