Danny Garcia vs. Robert Guerrero for vacant WBC 147lb title

By Boxing News - 01/13/2016 - Comments

guerrero55By Dan Ambrose: The World Boxing Council has revealed that unbeaten #2 WBC Danny Garcia (31-0, 18 KOs) and #6 WBC Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (33-3, 18 KOs) will be fighting for the vacant WBC welterweight [147 pound] title when they face each other on January 23 on Premier Boxing Champions on Fox Sports from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. This WBC stripped Floyd Mayweather Jr. of the WBC 147lb title due to him retiring. This past week, the WBA rejected the idea of having the Garcia-Guerrero fight as a title fight for their WBA “super” welterweight title. However, the WBC didn’t feel the same way and is allowing Garcia and Guerrero to fight for their vacant WBC 147lb title.

In addition to Guerrero and Garcia fighting for the vacant WBC welterweight title, the WBC will make the Jermell Charlo vs. John Jackson fight be for the vacant WBC junior middleweight title. This fight makes more sense because Charlo is ranked #1 by the WBC and Jackson #2.

The WBC’s rankings for 154 is a little mixed up, because you can make an argument that Jackson does not rate a No.2 ranking after his knockout loss to Andy Lee. A better choice would be Julian Williams, Austin Trout, Vanes Martirosyan, Demetrius Andrade or Erickson Lubin. For some reason, Jackson is ranked above all of those fighters. What this means is the WBC is making it easy for Charlo to win their WBC 154lb title.

The move is controversial won because Guerrero has lost two out of his last four fights, and Garcia has still not faced anyone of quality at the full weight for the welterweight division. Garcia recently beat a WAY past his prime 35-year-old Paulie Malignaggi last year by a 9th round knockout at the full weight of 147lb division. However, Garcia’s other two fights in the welterweight division were catch-weight fights against little lightweight Rod Salka and Lamont Peterson.

By letting Danny Garcia face Guerrero for the vacant WBC 147lb title the WBC is not matching Garcia against the best of their top 15 contenders or the highest rated. Amir Khan is ranked #1WBC, Shawn Porter #3, and Lamont Peterson at #4. Garcia, 27, should have been matched against one of those fighters for the vacant WBC welterweight title rather than letting Guerrero, a fighter who has lost half of his last four fights, fight for the belt.

The WBC has set it up to where they are making it easy for Danny Garcia to win their WBC welterweight title. They might as well just give the title to Garcia before the fight, because it is somewhat ridiculous how easy they are making it. Garcia is the favorite to defeat Guerrero, who some boxing fans see as a shot [over-the-hill] fighter at 32.

Some fans feel that Danny Garcia has had things given to him to make it easier for him to keep his unbeaten record. His wins over Mauricio Herrera and Lamont Peterson were controversial with a lot people seeing Garcia as having lost both fights. Garcia also vacated his WBA/WBC 140lb titles rather than face unbeaten Viktor Postol, his #1 WBC ranked contender at light welterweight. Garcia initially put the fight off by steering around Postol to fight Peterson. But then after that, Garcia vacated his titles altogether in a move that some fans felt was a way for him to avoid facing Postol and getting beaten. With Garcia moving up to welterweight and getting an easy title shot immediately against an arguably shot Guerrero for the vacant WBC welterweight title, it looks like Garcia is chances that other fighters aren’t getting. It also looks to some that the WBC title is just being given to Garcia instead of him having to work for it by fighting better fighters than the past his best Guerrero.

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The WBC should have matched Danny Garcia against the likes of #3 WBC Shawn Porter, #4 WBC Lamont Peterson, or #9 WBC Errol Spence. I do not think Garcia could beat any of those fighters, especially Spence. I realize that Garcia recently beat Peterson last year by a 12 round majority decision, but I feel that Peterson showed in the second half of that fight that he has Garcia’s number and is the better fighter than he is. If the two of them fought each other a second time, I think Peterson would beat him.

There had been talk of the WBC having a tournament to determine the new WBC champion, but they obviously gave up on that idea and will instead let Garcia and Guerrero fight for the vacant belt.



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