By Eric Baldwin: WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) sees a fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. is a possibility for him as soon as Mayweather comes out of retirement to resume his pro career. Garcia, 28, isn’t sure whether Mayweather will come out of retirement to fight him, but he does believe it’s a fight that could happen.
Mayweather will need to fight someone when he comes out of retirement, and Garcia is easily the best option for him at welterweight. Garcia is the most popular fighter in the 147lb division now that Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao have retired from the sport.
“I think it’s realistic. If he said I’ll fight Danny Garcia, but as far as I know now, he’s on vacation, I mean, he’s on retirement,” Garcia said to Fighthub.com. “I saw him in Miami at the pool. We had a handshake, we talked for a little bit. Talked about shutting down Khan and Canelo, but that didn’t happen.”
If Mayweather is going to come out of retirement, he will probably do it by early next year. If Mayweather doesn’t fight in 2017, then he likely won’t ever come back. He’s not going to stay out of the ring for two years and then try and make a comeback under those conditions. It would be too much time out of the ring for Mayweather if he comes back in 2018 or later.
Many boxing fans have speculated that Mayweather will select Garcia as his opponent if he comes back. Mayweather has fed that speculation by mentioning Garcia in the past as a possible option for him.
Garcia doesn’t like the idea of the winner of the June 25 fight between Keith “One Time” Thurman and Shawn Porter being seen as the king of the welterweight division. Garcia feels that he should be seen as the king of the welterweight division right now.
“How can you be the king of the division, though? Like, that’s both of their biggest fights of their career, them against each other,” said Garcia. “I don’t know if it’s for king of the division. It puts them up there, but… Everybody can say anything, but there’s work to be done. I always feel like I’m the king. I’m always the king. I put the most work in out of both of them. I’ve been the most relevant out of both of them. I think it’s a great fight for both of them, I wish nothing but success to both of them in that fight.”
Garcia holds the WBC welterweight title, and that’s the belt that is seen by many in the boxing world as the most prestigious of the titles in the 147lb division. You can’t deny that. Until Thurman and Porter hold the WBC welterweight title, they’ll have a hard time making the claim that they are the best.
What makes Garcia the best welterweight is he has the largest fan base in the division. If you possess the biggest fan base in the division, then that makes you the best welterweight by default. The winner of the Thurman-Porter fight on June 25 will still need to get past Danny Garcia before they can claim they’re the No.1 welterweight. They can say they’re the best, but the boxing fans as a whole will see Garcia as the best.