(Photo credit: Hogan Photos) By Gav Duthie: After successive 4th round stoppage victories over Mexican legend Erik Morales and Amir Khan it seemed like Danny Garcia was destined for pound for pound stardom. With a lovely left hook, sound boxing ability and a quirky father to add personality he looked a pay-per-view certainty. Now I am asking the question where is Danny Garcia going with his career. Despite still being undefeated he seems to be going backwards.
Fighting weight?
Pretty much everyone had Mauricio Herrera beating him in his last fight. He certainly dodged a bullet there. His excuse for not giving him a rematch was issues with making weight yet here is fighting average lightweight contender Rod Salka 19-3 (3) defending his two 140lb titles. If Danny had decided to relinquish his titles I can understand him fighting someone at this level if he moved up to 147 but at 140 this is probably the most pointless fight of the year. He has nothing to gain from this at all. If he is not going to move up to 147 then a fight with Mayweather and other top welterweights is miles away. It looks like Golden Boy are trying to generate interest in a unification bout with Lamont Peterson. Although that fight is watchable its not box office. Not everyone’s be all and end all motivation needs to be to fight Mayweather but he does keep namedropping him.
Mayweather
When Garcia sat ringside to watch Lucas Matthyse destroy Lamont Peterson he looked fearful of the Argentine. I thought there was no way he would take the fight but he did and he outfought and out-boxed Matthyse on the Mayweather-Canelo undercard in September last year. I was sure he would then be Mayweather’s next opponent but he is now well down the list. Garcia indicated he would love to fight Mayweather recently and laid out the blueprint as to how he would win.
Fight my fight
Don’t let him dictate pace
Beat him to punch
Cut the distance
Fight heart out
Throw when he throws
Is Danny talking about someone else here. Maybe he should have adopted some of these tactics against Herrera. What Garcia struggled with against Herrera was the lateral movement and angles. Mayweather excels at this and as a result would beat the current Garcia comfortably. On dictating the fight pace Garcia fights slower than Mayweather does so we would need to see a dramatic increase in work rate from him. If Mayweather is Garcia’s main goal then he is perhaps doing an Amir Khan by taking no risks so he keeps his undefeated record before negotiating a fight. This won’t work because Mayweather is all about whats hot, what sells. He picked Canelo because of the fan base, he picked Maidana because of the Broner win and he avoided Khan because he hadn’t done anything in 13 months.
If Garcia wins this Saturday against Salka I think he should move up to 147. A rematch against Herrera looks past and beating Peterson wouldn’t do much for his career in my opinion. I would much prefer to see him fight a Thurman, Maidana, Bundu, Alexander, Bradley or Guerrero if he really wants to be considered one of the worlds best fighters.
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