Danny Garcia: The Thurman fight is for my legacy

By Boxing News - 02/22/2017 - Comments

Image: Danny Garcia: The Thurman fight is for my legacy

By Jim Dower: WBC welterweight champion Danny “Swift” Garcia (33-0, 19 KOs) views his fight against WBA champion Keith “One Time” Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs) as a fight that will help shape his legacy when the two of them fight each other in less than two weeks on March 4 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Garcia wants to add Thurman’s scalp to his collection of scalps, and adding his WBA 147lb title will definitely help his career. Thurman would be the biggest name on Garcia’s resume next to his wins over Lucas Matthysse and Amir Khan. Those wins came a while ago, and Garcia hasn’t beaten a big name since his the Matthysse fight four years ago.

Garcia thinks that a victory over Thurman will put him in the same class as Puerto Rican star Miguel Cotto. Garcia will need more than a win over Thurman to put him in the class of Cotto. Garcia will need to beat the winner of the Kell Brook vs. Errol Spence, Shawn Porter and possibly even Manny Pacquiao.

I doubt that Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum will let him fight Danny Garcia at this point, even though he’s mentioned interest in making that fight in the past. Danny might be seen as someone a little too dangerous for Pacquiao at this point in his career.

The loser of the Thurman-Garcia fight will need to rebuild their career a little bit. I don’t expect the loser to get taken back to square one with their boxing career, because that would be a waste of time. I do see a couple of tune-ups in store for the loser of the fight, which will likely wind up eating up the remainder of 2017. Just saying busy is an important factor for both fighters, especially Thurman. He hasn’t fought since last July.

Thurman is seen as the favorite in the fight, though he’s not a solid favorite in the eyes of a lot of boxing fans. Thurman’s shaky performance in his last fight against Shawn Porter last July is what has a lot of fans wondering whether he’s a solid pick or not. Thurman just barely edged Porter. The fight could have done the other way if Porter had kept his guard up for Thurman’s left hooks, which he was landing again and again in the fight.

“This fight is something I definitely need for my legacy as I already have a huge one at 140 and establishing one in a division as historic as welterweight will only take me to a higher level,” Garcia said via RingTV.com. “Being a Puerto Rican kid from Philly, I know what’s at stake and I know how a win against Keith will have my name up there with the [Miguel] Cotto’s of the world,” said Garcia.

Garcia says he’s got a great game plan that he and his dad Angel Garcia have put together to defeat Thurman. Angel has talked about wanting Garcia to land shots to the body of Thurman, because he believes that he can’t take hard body shots due to him being hurt in the Collazo fight. Thurman thinks it’s nonsense that he can’t handle getting hit hard to the body. We’re going to find out on March 4 whether it’s true or not, because Garcia is surely going to be aiming his punches to Thurman’s body.

Garcia might need to knockout Thurman or at least drop him once or twice to get the victory. Thurman has a lot of punching power going for him.

It’s too bad Cotto is retiring this year, because a fight between him and Garcia would help show the boxing world that the better fighter is of the two. Cotto seems more interested in taking it easy until he gets a rematch against Saul Canelo Alvarez in December. Danny Garcia probably wouldn’t get full credit for beating Cotto at this point in his career because of his advanced age and his two years of inactivity since his last fight in 2015.

Thurman is going to be a really tough fight for Garcia. There’s a lot of speed, power and size that Thurman has going for him going into this fight. However, Thurman doesn’t have a lot of experience against high level opposition though. That’s an advantage that Garcia will have. Thurman talks like he’s a super experienced fighter, but he’s really not. Thurman’s best opponents thus far as these guys:

Shawn Porter

Leonard Bundu

Luis Collazo

Diego Chaves

Julio Diaz

Jesus Soso Karass

Jan Zaveck

Carlos Quintana

The experience is largely on Garcia’s side in this fight. He’s faced the better opposition thus far in his career. It’s unclear why Thurman’s management hasn’t matched him against better fighters. They waited a long time before they finally stepped him up against Porter. Thurman almost lost that fight, and now he’s facing Garcia.

The winner of the Thurman vs. Garcia fight could face the winner of the Brook vs. Spence fight. There’s also a possibility that the Thurman-Garcia fight could defend the two titles against Adrien Broner. It’ll be up to their management who gets the fight.

It also will depend on if Spence gets past Brook or not. If Brook wins, his promoter Eddie Hearn could do any number of things. He’s already said that he’s interested in matching Brook against Manny Pacquiao if the option is there. You would have to believe that Hearn will opt to match Brook against Pacquiao rather than the winner of the Garcia-Thurman fight. Those guys are still young and will be around for a while. Pacquiao is at the end of the line and will likely be retiring soon.

The Garcia vs. Thurman fight will be televised on Premier Boxing Champions on CBS from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.