By Dan Ambrose: Danny ‘Swift’ Garcia (33-1, 18 KOs) says he’s going to be whipping lot of backside in 2018, beginning with his fight against Brandon ‘Bam Bam’ Rios (34-3-1, 25 KOs) a month from now on February 17 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino, Events Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Garcia is boasting about himself, but he’s viewed as a cherry-picker by the boxing fans for choosing to fight Rios. It’s the wrong opponent for Danny Garcia to be fighting in 2018. Rios would have been a good choice for Garcia back in 2011 or 2012, when ‘Bam Bam’ was fighting at a high level.
Rios’ record in his last 6 fights, 3-3, suggests that he’s not worthy of a fight in a main event against Garcia on Showtime Boxing. That’s the beef that many fans have with this match. Garcia is painting himself as a great fighter, and yet he’s facing an arguably semi-retired fighter in 31-year-old Rios.
“Feeling good,” said Danny Garcia to ES News Reporting. “Feeling young. Feeling handsome. Feeling rich. 2018, there’s going to be a whole lot of [backside] whipping,” said Garcia.
As long as Garcia upgrades his level of competition after the Rios fight in 2018, it won’t be as bad. But if this fight is just a continuation of Garcia picking easy marks for easy paydays at the expense of Showtime subscribers, then it’s a bad deal. Boxing fans want to see the best match-ups, and Garcia is picking an easy mark in Rios. There are a lot of other fighters that Garcia could have picked for the February 17 date on Showtime rather than a guy with a sinking career like Rios.
Danny Garcia could have picked from one of these guys for his February 17 fight:
• Errol Spence Jr. – Garcia was offered a title shot by Spence for his IBF welterweight strap
• Shawn Porter
• Lucas Matthysse
• Terence Crawford
• Lamont Peterson
• Amir Khan
If Garcia fights Amir Khan in his second fight in 2018, that at least would partially make up for the mismatch against Rios. But if Garcia is going to select another weak opponent for easy payday, then it’s going to be largely continuation of what we’ve been seeing from him.
Garcia-Rios isn’t for a world title or an eliminator. It’s a fight involving former world champions that currently don’t possess world titles. Garcia lost his WBC welterweight belt last year to Keith Thurman by a 12 round split decision on March 4. It was a good fight, but Garcia didn’t do enough to earn the win.
Rios hasn’t been a world champion since losing his WBA lightweight title on the scales in his fight against John Murray in December 2011. It’s hard to believe Rios hasn’t won a world title since that defeat. Rios would have won the vacant WBA World lightweight belt if he’d made weight for his December 3, 2012 fight against Richard Abril. Rios won the fight by a controversial 12 round split decision, but he wasn’t able to win the WBA belt due to him missing the weight.
