Angel Garcia wants Danny to retire after loss to Thurman

By Boxing News - 03/07/2017 - Comments

Image: Angel Garcia wants Danny to retire after loss to Thurman

By Jeff Aranow: Danny Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs) suffered his first career defeat last Saturday night in losing a close 12 round split decision to WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs) at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The fight was a unification match, and Garcia lost his WBC welterweight title in losing by the scores 116-112, 115-112 for Thurman and 115-113 for Garcia.

While the 28-year-old Garcia said after the fight that he’d like a rematch with Thurman, his father/trainer Angel Garcia had other ideas with what he wants him to do. Angel wants him to bow out of the sport. It’s unclear whether this was temporarily sour grapes for Angel or whether he plans on having Danny retire. It would be unfortunate for Garcia if he retires now, because he can still make a great deal of money fighting Thurman in a rematch.

There are other fighters that Garcia can fight as well. He still have his boxing skills and power intact, He just lost to a better fighter with a superior game plan last Saturday night.

“I would love a rematch with Keith Thurman,” said Danny Garcia after his loss to Thurman last Saturday night.

Garcia would be seen by many boxing fans as a quitter if he retires after his loss to Thurman. I’m not sure that Garcia wants to be labelled like that.

Thurman seems to be interested in a rematch with Garcia. Thurman spoke of possible interest in the Garcia rematch, as well as a potential stay busy fight. There’s also talk that Thurman could fight newly crowned WBA World welterweight champion Lamont Peterson next. That’s a fight that would interest a lot of boxing fans, because Peterson is well known and is coming off an impressive 12 round decisions win over David Avanesyan on February 18 last month. It would be a safer fight for Thurman than a rematch with Garcia because Peterson isn’t a huge puncher.

“You cannot beat a world champion running like Thurman did,” said Angel after the fight. “It’s not that I’m a bad loser, it’s just that I’m disgusted with boxing right now. I want Danny to leave. A rematch? No, because we do not believe in it,” Garcia said.

Thurman did use a lot of movement, but he was busy enough in the first part of the fight to build a significant lead that Garcia couldn’t overcome.

Garcia made $2 million for the Thurman fight. The money might not be as much for Garcia in a rematch depending on how the negotiations take place. Thurman is probably Garcia’s best bet for a big payday right now unless Manny Pacquiao starts showing interest in fighting him.