Danny Garcia expects to change Lamont Peterson’s game once he starts nailing him

By Boxing News - 04/08/2015 - Comments

garcia4By Dan Ambrose: This Saturday night two of the best light welterweights in the world will be fighting a catch-weight fight at welterweight when Danny Garcia (29-0, 17 KOs) and Lamont Peterson (33-2-1, 17 KOs) fight each other in a 12 round bout at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Neither fighter’s world titles will be on the line for the fight because of Garcia’s decision to fight at a catch-weight of 143 pounds. Fans should be thankful that the fight is a 12 rounder at least because you just never know what other chances you might see in a fight like this.

Danny Garcia’s last fight against lightweight Rod Salka was a 10 rounder rather than a 12 rounder, and it took place at a catch-weight of 142 pounds. It turned out to be a really bad choice for Garcia to take the fight due to it being such a poor mismatch.

Garcia has the power advantage to make this a very easy fight for him if he can land some of his huge bombs to the head of Peterson. What Garcia doesn’t want to do is get caught up in a close quarter war where he and Peterson trade body shots for 12 rounds.

Peterson is the better inside fighter, and he could wear Garcia down with his shots. However, it’s very unlikely that Garcia would let Peterson get his shots off if the two of them went toe-to-toe. We’d likely see Garcia play it just like he did against Lucas Matthysse by clinching Peterson 10+ times per rounds, and hitting him with low blows over and over again to keep him from getting into any kind of rhythm with his offense.

It worked on Matthysse because he didn’t fight back by hitting Garcia in return with low blows, and he didn’t do a good job of fighting through Garcia’s constant clinching. When you have a clincher like Garcia was in the Matthysse fight, you have to continue to fight while being held. If the referee isn’t going to lift a finger to control the clinching, then a fighter has to take things into their own hands.

“I just want to give the fans a great fight,” Garcia said via Fighthype.com. “I want them to see the best Danny Garcia. At the end of the day, this is the fight the fans want to see. My main focus is putting on a great show for the fans. Come April 11 when he’s feeling these two bombs on his face he’s going to forget about his skill.”

Garcia needs to put out some effort in this fight because he did not look good the last time he fought a good opponent in Mauricio Herrera last year. In fact, you can say that Garcia lost for the first time in his career despite the judges not agreeing that Herrera won the fight. It sure looked like Herrera won it.

Garcia’s last fight against Rod Salka really didn’t count much due to Salka being a 2nd tier lightweight. He wasn’t a top tier fighter, and it was too easy for Garcia. The fight arguably should never had been sanctioned in the first place.

“I’ve faced a lot of skillful boxers in my career and I’m still undefeated. That should tell the fans around the world who has more skill,” Garcia said. “I just want to give fans a great fight. I’m not too worried about the ‘0’ on my record. I fight hard to protect it but my main focus is to go in there and get the job done one fight at a time.”

I don’t know if Garcia can rightfully call himself a still undefeated fighter because he clearly lost the fight to Herrera in one of the worst scored fights of the year in 2014. To be sure, Garcia can say that he still has an unbeaten record, but he’s hardly undefeated. The Herrera fight was a loss to a lot of the fans who saw it. It’s on Garcia for not having the presence of mind to realize that he needs to avenge that loss to Herrera so that he can show boxing fans that he’s not the same fighter that Herrera dominated.

“I have to be smart in the ring. I have to go in there and be Danny Garcia. I’m here because I’m a smart fighter,” Garcia said. “Everyone knows that. I have power. I’m going to find my opening and capitalize on his mistakes.”



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