By Eric Baldwin: WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia isn’t ready to look bad his opponent Samuel Vargas this Saturday night towards a much bigger fight against WBA champion Keith Thurman next March. Garcia is “pumped up” for his fight on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike against Vargas despite the fact that he’s not seen as a big name in the sport.
Garcia takes every fight seriously, and he doesn’t want to overlook a guy that has upset on his mind. Vargas has no pressure on him, because he’s seen as the sacrificial lamb for the slaughter in this fight in Garcia’s hometown of Philadelphia.
The 27-year-old Canadian resident Vargas said this about his fight against Garcia:
“I’m looking for the upset that night,” Vargas said. “Everyone wants to see Danny fight Keith Thurman, but I’m looking to make myself known. I feel confident. All I have to do is go up there and do my job. Don’t miss it, because it’s going to be a memorable one.”
It’s good that Vargas is ready to try and cause an upset in this fight against Garcia, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to succeed on Saturday night. Vargas doesn’t have the pedigree to pull off an upset, because he’s not been consistently matched against good fighters.
The one good fighter that Vargas did fight, Errol Spence Jr, stopped him in the 4th round last year. That was a disaster for Vargas, as he looked completely over-matched in that fight. A lot of top fighters would likely find themselves in a similar situation if they fought Spence too. Even Garcia would likely be out of his element if he fought Spence, but it’s still not good news that Vargas was beaten so easily by Spence. Vargas looked like he didn’t belong inside the same ring with Spence in that fight.
“I know people are excited about the Thurman fight,” Garcia said. “I understand that and I’m going to be pumped up for that one too. But I’m not looking past anybody. I’m fully focused on putting on a show at home and doing what I have to do to beat Vargas.”
Garcia and Thurman will be fighting each other on March 4th if Garcia beats Vargas on Saturday night. Thurman is already done for the year after his tough win over Shawn Porter last June. The fight was tough enough for Thurman to where he doesn’t want to fight again for the remainder of 2016. He doesn’t want to take anymore punishment until he gets inside the ring with Danny Garcia in four months from now.
Garcia will be fighting in front of his home fans in Philadelphia for the Vargas fight. He needs to make sure that his boxing fans don’t cause him to fight in a foolish manner for this fight, because Vargas has enough punching power to give him problems if he’s able to land one of his hard right hands. Vargas will be looking for a knockout from the opening round. If Garcia gets careless inside the ring, then it could be curtains for him.
Garcia had it easy in his last fight in picking up the vacant World Boxing Council welterweight title against former two division world champion Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero in winning a 12 round decision. Guerrero came into the fight having lost two out of his last four fights, and a lot of fans felt that he didn’t rate to be fighting for a world title.
“I’m feeling good and I’m happy to bring my fans in Philadelphia a fight,” Garcia said. “I’m looking forward to bringing more fights back here to Philadelphia. This is a fighting city where it all started for a lot of great fighters.”