(Photo credit: Ester Lin/Showtime) By Dan Ambrose: WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (27-0, 16 KO’s) is facing what almost a tune-up caliber opponent on March 15th against Mauricio Herrera (20-3, 7 KO’s) at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez, Bayamon, Puerto Rico. Herrera has lost 2 out of his last 4 fights, and he seems to have been picked out for what he did in the past when he beat Ruslan Provodnikov many moons ago in 2011. A lot of things have changed since then for Herrera. He’s been beaten by Karim Mayfield and Mike Alvarado.
Garcia has chosen to fight in Puerto Rico where his parents came from. That’s fine, but why didn’t Garcia pick someone a lot better than Herrera? I’m still trying to understand his choice of opponent. If he really wanted to create the best impression with his parent’s people, then why didn’t he select someone that actually has a chance to beat him like Lucas Matthysse instead of someone that has lost 2 out of his last 4 fights?
“Even though I’m from Philly, that’s not my heritage. It’s important for me to reach out to my fans because I think Puerto Rican boxing needs this right now. I think that Puerto Rico is going to accept me as its own after I win on March 15. Philadelphia might be my birthplace, but Puerto Rico is my blood.”
I think Garcia could have done a lot better than Herrera if he wanted to impress his fans from his parent’s home country, don’t you think? First impressions are very important, and if this is the type of opponent that Danny thinks will wow the Peurto Rican fans, I think he’s kidding himself. Puerto Rican fans know a lot about boxing, and I think more than a few will wonder why he’s not fighting someone a lot better than Herrera.
Danny has already made his choice for his next fight, so there’s no way of getting around that. He’s just going to have to make the best of it by beating Herrera as quick as possible so that he can really impress the fans.
My suggestion for Danny would be for him to aim his punches a little bit higher when throwing body shots, because I think he’ll ruin his performance if he hits Herrera low all night like he did Lucas Matthysse last September. He won’t be giving much of a gift to the fans if he’s knocking Herrera down with shots south of the border for 12 rounds. Besides that, Danny needs to avoid all the holding and running he did in the Matthysse fight. It was awful watching all the clinching and running that Danny did in that fight, I thought he should have lost a lot of points for the holding. The running was just bad to watch.
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