By Dan Ambrose: Danny Garcia thinks he has a clever idea of how to beat IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. when the time comes for them to face each other. Garcia (33-1, 19 KOs) says the main strategy that you need to defeat the 27-year-old Spence (22-0, 19 KOs) is to take him to a place he’s never been before.
(Photo credit: Scott Hirano/SHOWTIME)
Garcia appears to be saying that to beat Spence, you’ve got to put a ton of pressure on him to wear him down to the point where he’s beaten. Garcia has never really fought like that during his career. The closest that he’s ever come to taking a fighter to a place where they’ve never been before was in his fight with WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman last year in March. Garcia lost hat fight by a 2 round split decision after he started too late in putting pressure on Thurman.
Garcia has a fight coming up next month against former WBA 135 lb. champion Brandon ‘Bam Bam’ Rios (34-3-1, 25 KOs) on February 17 on Showtime Boxing at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Garcia has been receiving lot of anger from the boxing fans, who are calling him ‘Cherry Garcia’ and ‘Ducker.’ The aren’t happy that Garcia an over-the-hill fighter in Rios. He’s lost 3 out of his last 5 fights.
“He’s fighting [Lamont] Peterson. That’s not an easy fight,” said Danny Garcia in talking about Spence’s January 20th fight against Peterson. “He’s always in shape. He’s technical. He’s technical. He’s not a big puncher, but he can give you hell if you let him. He’s got a test with Peterson first before he can worry about,” said Garcia.
Garcia had major problems in his fight with Lamont Peterson on April 11, 2015. Garcia won the fight by a 12 round majority decision, but it was a very close contest that could have gone either way. Boxing News 24 had Garcia winning by a 7 rounds to 5 score, but he didn’t finish strong. Peterson appeared to win the last 5 rounds with the pressure that he put on Garcia. One of the reasons why the boxing fans believed that Peterson should have gotten the win was how Garcia badly caved in the last 5 rounds.
When fans see a fighter fall apart as badly as Garcia did in the last half of the fight, they naturally think that he should have lost the fight. Garcia did enough to win the fight, but it was close.
Peterson didn’t fight a smart fight. He had the talent to win, but he fought like he was afraid of Garcia’s power in the early going. Once Peterson realized that he could take Garcia’s power, he walked him down and dominated the second half of the fight. Garcia’s faced was swollen up by Peterson, and he looked beaten and exhausted at the end of the fight.
”Danny Garcia is the most popular one,” said Garcia. ”Numbers don’t lie. You’ve got to fight Danny Garcia to have a big fight in the welterweight division. He’s a young fighter. He’s strong. He’s hungry. I know what his mindset is. I’ve been there before. You’ve got to take him to a place he’s never been before. That’s it. Only he knows where that’s at,” said Garcia.
It’s interesting that Garcia talks about how he thinks he knows how to defeat Errol Spence Jr., but when he was called out by him for a fight last year, he showed no interest whatsoever in that fight. Spence offered Garcia a title shot at his IBF 147 lb. belt. It would have made sense for Peterson to take the fight, as he had lost his WBC welterweight title to Thurman on March 5.
Garcia could have taken the fight with Spence, and had a chance to win his IBF belt. Rather than face Peterson, Garcia stayed out of the ring for the remainder of 2017. Garcia is going to have to step up to the plate to face Spence sooner or later. If Spence beats Thurman to capture the WBA and WBC welterweight titles, it’ll place 3 of the 4 welterweight titles in his possession.
The only title not held by Spence at that point will be the WBO welterweight strap, which by that time will likely be held by Terence Crawford if he can beat Jeff Horn in a Top Rank fight. Garcia lacks the size to move up to 154. He’ll pretty much have to fight Spence. Garcia’s manager Al Haymon likely won’t deal with Top Rank to make a fight between Garcia and the winner of the Jeff Horn vs. Crawford fight for the WBO title.
“That’s an interesting fight,” said Garcia about the rumors of Amir Khan fighting Adrien Broner next in April or May. “No one knows how Khan…Khan has been out for a minute. Broner, he’s been struggling at the top level too. I think it’s a great fight for both of them. It’s even because of the inactivity of Amir Khan, and how Broner hasn’t been consistent,” said Garcia.
The Amir Khan vs. Adrien Broner fight is still just a rumor at this stage. Khan is supposed to be making an announcement this Wednesday about him signing with Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn. It’ll be up to Hearn and Al Haymon who Khan faces. Broner is with Haymon, so it’s a double fight. It’s any one’s guess who Khan will fight. There is talk that Khan will fight in the UK in his next fight.
We’ll have to see if the Khan-Broner fight happens. It would make sense for Khan to fight on the undercard of Kell Brook’s March 3 fight against Sergey Rabchenko at the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, England. It appears that the chief reason that Khan is signing with Hearn is so he can fight Brook in a big PPV fight on Sky Box Office PPV. Brook is one of Hearn’s fighters in his Matchroom Sport stable. Having Khan and Brook both in his stable makes it an easy fight for him to make.
“I’ve never been offered the fight, but I like that fight,” said Garcia about Shawn Porter. “I think it’s a good fight for me. He comes forward. He likes to fight. I’m a good boxer, counter puncher. I got good power in both hands. Be careful what you wish for,” said Garcia in sending a message to Porter.
Shawn Porter called out Danny Garcia plenty of times. Garcia has to know that Porter has wanted to fight him for a long time now.
