By Duke Pahulu: After Lamont Peterson’s solid rebound from his KO loss to Lucas Matthysee in 2013, the stage was set for Peterson to challenge Danny Garcia for his 140 Ring Title. Unlike most times when fighters are put on the spot, Peterson said what the boxing public wanted by challenging Danny Garcia for all the marbles at 140. This was great news since there were rumblings of Garcia taking a fight against Mauricio Herrera.
Herrera is a solid junior welter but not worthy of challenging the champ. Plus the Herrera fight doesn’t build on the momentum of Garcia’s best win to date against Lucas Matthysse. I thought the reason why Floyd Mayweather Jr. put the Garcia-Matthysee fight on the Saul “Canelo” Alvarez undercard was to hype up his next opponent which would be the winner of the bout. Great business move since Golden Boy failed to keep Miguel Cotto and build him up for a Floyd rematch to give Showtime another big PPV event. Garcia turned in his best performance to date by undressing the KO machine with deft movement, defense, and a solid jab.
The Garcia-Matthysee bout didn’t add to the PPV numbers because the same people that wanted to see that fight were the same exact people who were going to buy the Floyd-Canelo card regardless. But Floyd wasted the exposure to reportedly negotiate a fight with Amir Khan. So Danny Garcia is going the Khan route by taking on an ESPN2 fighter in hopes of hitting the jackpot? Khan’s last fight was against a washed up lightweight in Julio Diaz and he was knocked down with the same left hook that has haunted Khan’s career. Maybe this move is a response to Floyd’s choice of giving an unworthy foe a shot at the biggest fight in the sport. Garcia feels he’s got the right for a gimmie fight as well as opposed to fighting someone who will lead him to the Floyd sweepstakes.
The only Golden Boy fighter worthy to challenge for Garcia’s titles is Peterson. You may say that Garcia destroys Peterson but if that’s true, he’ll have an easier time doing the same thing to Herrera. Let’s all hope Golden Boy gets their act together and start building potential foes for Floyd by giving them stern tests to show the public they are worthy of their hard earn money. Floyd has been fighting guys coming off good wins ever since the Carlos Baldomir fight in 2006.
So the thought of Floyd giving Amir Khan a shot is disturbing. I know he’s got a UK following but he’s still hasn’t done squat since the Garcia KO and if he wants the UK’s money, the UK has a worthy full-fledged undefeated welter in Kell Brook they can fully support. Golden Boy should step in and tell Floyd Khan isn’t worthy if Floyd is really contemplating the fight.
I can think of five fighters more worthy of a Floyd fight. Erislandy Lara, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, Marcos Maidana and Kell Brook would all make more sense than Amir Khan. Golden Boy had the right attitude last year by putting on solid undercards on their two PPV shows as opposed to the awful undercards Top Rank had on their two PPV shows last year. Golden Boy knows they are on a smaller stage than Top Rank with HBO so they should make the fights counts.
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