By Dan Ambrose: WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (29-0, 17 KOs) says he plans on making a statement in his catch-weight fight at 143 pounds against IBF light welterweight champion Lamont Peterson (33-2-1, 17 KOs) on April 11th in their fight on Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on NBC at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York, USA.
The fight will be watched by a lot of new casual fans on NBC, and this will be Garcia’s chance to impress the fans with his performance. He’s not going to be facing little Rod Salka for this fight, so he’s going to need to have to take some actual punches in return unless he can get Peterson out of there quickly.
Garcia, 27, is fighting at a catch-weight because he wants to gradually make the move up to 147, which is where he plans on fighting at as a welterweight in the near future. Garcia doesn’t want to just jump into the welterweight class like other fighters have done like Floyd Mayweather Jr, Marcos Maidana and Manny Pacquiao. He wants to ease his way in.
As big as Garcia looks after he rehydrates for his fights at light welterweight, it seems like a big waste of time him taking the slow approach to getting used to fighting at welterweight. He’s still going to have major problems against guys like Mayweather, Keith Thurman, Maidana, and Pacquiao no matter how much time he spends getting used to the higher weight for the 147lb division.
“I’m ready to make a statement,” Garcia said via Philly.com. “I have to go out there and dominate, I know that. Big money . . . I would love to. That is what boxing is about and that’s every fighter’s dream, to fight on that stage, of course, you know, for a lot of money. But it’s one fight at a time.”
There’s really not much of a statement that Garcia can make in beating Peterson, because it’s already been done before by Lucas Matthysse, who destroyed him in just three rounds in their fight in 2013. Garcia would be better off giving Matthysse a rematch rather than facing Peterson. I’m sure that a lot of boxing fans would be a lot more interested in seeing that fight than seeing Garcia fight a guy that Matthysse totally obliterated.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuGcIJyQbn4
Garcia is about to turn 28, so he can’t take forever trying to work his way to the welterweight division. He also can’t afford to move too slowly if he wants to get a fight against Mayweather, because the 38-year-old fighter isn’t going to wait around for the next three to four years waiting for Garcia to finally feel comfortable enough to fight at the weight without the need of additional catch-weights.
After beating Lucas Matthysse by a 12 round unanimous decision in the high point of his career two years ago in September 2013, Garcia’s popularity has taken a major hit with him getting a controversial 12 round decision over Mauricio Herrera in March 2014, and then following that up with a catch-weight fight at 142 pounds against 2nd tier lightweight Rod Salka.
What was interesting about that fight was that not only did Garcia fight a guy a division below him in the lightweight Salka, but he fought him at welterweight instead of light welterweight. He dragged Salka up two divisions to face him. What was even more troubling about the fight is that Salka wasn’t even a top 15 contender at lightweight. It didn’t make sense for Garcia to pool from the lightweight division and face a non-top 15 contender. The WBA and WBC made the wise decision not to sanction the fight as a title defense after the backlash from boxing fans reached their ears.
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