By Eric Thomas: Dan Rafael is reporting that a potential hot card headlined by WBC light welterweight champion Erik Morales (52-7, 36 KO’s) vs. unbeaten contender Danny Garcia ( 22-0, 14 KO’s) and junior middleweight contenders James Kirkland (30-1, 27 KO’s) vs. Carlos Molina (19-4-2, 6 KO’s) is a possibility for January 28th in Houston, Texas.

This would be a risky fight for Morales to face the young 23-yer-old Garcia, ranked #2 IBF, #2 WBO and #2 WBC, as this guy has got size, power and youth going for him. Garcia is also a natural at light welterweight and is big for this division, unlike Morales, who has moved up in weight due to aging. Garcia would have the power and size advantage, but Morales would clearly be the more experienced fighter.

Garcia’s best wins thus far have come against Kendall Holt, Nate Campbell, Mike Arnaoutis, Ashley Theophane and Christopher Fernandez. Garcia barely beat Holt, and showed weaknesses with his defense and lack of hand speed.
Morales, 35, recently defeated #12 ranked fringe contender Pablo Cesar Cano in the 10th round last September to capture the World Boxing Council title. It wasn’t a great performance from Morales, who really struggled to get the win over the 22-year-old Cano. Before that, Morales was beaten by Marcos Maidana by a 12 round majority decision last April. Morales thought he did enough to win but he ran out of gas in the last three rounds and was outworked by Maidana.

I would have to favor Garcia to win this fight, and I’d be surprised if Golden Boy makes it. It was thought that Morales would test himself at lightweight to see if he could capture the WBC belt from champion Antonio DeMarco. That would be a worthy fight for Morales, because it would be a chance for Morales to capture another title. In the case of Garcia, Morales would be defending his belt against his No.2 challenger and it could be a very hard fight and difficult to score.

In the James Kirkland vs. Carlos Molina bout, you would have to favor Kirkland due to his bigger power and high workrate. He’s coming off of a 6th round TKO over top WBC contender Alfredo Angulo last month in Mexico. Angulo dropped Kirkland in the 1st round, but punched himself out trying to get the knockout. Kirkland then got warmed up and battered Angulo until the fight was stopped in the 6th. Kirkland has good offensive skills and a high work rate when he’s in shape. However, his chin remains his weak link and if he’s hit hard by someone that comes out fast out of the blocks, Kirkland can be stopped like he was against the quicker Nobuhiro Ishida last April in a 1st round knockout loss.

Molina, 28, isn’t much of a puncher, but what does do well is throw a lot of punches and smother his opponents on the inside. I don’t know that his style will work against Kirkland but it’s possible. Kirkland has decent inside fighting skills, but he’s not faced anyone that can work him like Molina.

Molina has beaten Danny Perez, Allen Conyers and Kermit Cintron in 2011, and arguably should have been given the decision in his fight against Erislandy Lara last March. The fight was ruled a 10 round draw but few boxing fans agree with that decision. They saw Molina as the winner of that fight.