By Allan Fox: Trainer Angel Garcia, the father of WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs), has been going back and forth in trash talking WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (29-0, 20 KOs).
Angel has gone after Crawford about him fighting John Molina, a fighter who recently was soundly beaten by Adrien Broner and Humberto Soto. Crawford has returned the favor in ridiculing Danny Garcia’s choice of Samuel Vargas (25-2-1, 13 KOs), who he’ll be fighting this Saturday night on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike from the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia.
(Photo credit: Terel Vann/King’s Promotions/Premier Boxing Champions)
The 27-year-old Vargas presented no resistance at all for Errol Spence Jr. last year in losing to him by a 4th round knockout. It was embarrassingly easy for Spence to wipeout Vargas. Of course, that’s Spence, a fighter who may be the best talent in the 147lb division now that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is gone. Garcia might not find it nearly as easy in beating Vargas as Spence did.
Angel said this to Fight News about Crawford:
“You haven’t got nothing Crawford. You want to bet a million? Danny would whip you [backside] all over,” said Angel. ”Move up to one-forty- seven, young boy. You know Top Rank is taking all your money. You aren’t making any real money anyway. We get two million to three million for an opponent. What do you get?”
It’s unclear how much money Crawford is getting for his fights from Top Rank. He needs to move up out of the 140lb division for him to have a chance of becoming a star. We do know that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum wants to match Crawford against their aging star 37-year-old Manny Pacquiao in what some boxing fans see as an attempt to transform Crawford into a star.
However, beating Pacquiao is probably not going to turn Crawford into a star, especially if Top Rank turns around and matches him against guys like Hank Lundy, John Molina, and Viktor Postol. Crawford needs to move up in weight to the welterweight division and try his hand at fighting guys like Errol Spence Jr., Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, and Danny Garcia.
If Crawford is rugged enough to stay in the pocket and beat those guys, then he’ll become a star. He’ll need to change his fighting style though by becoming less mobile, because he’s not going to win decisions if he stays on the move like he did against Viktor Postol in the later rounds of their fight last Summer.
Angel seems to be pretty confident that Danny Garcia would beat Crawford if the two of them were to face each other at 147. Unfortunately for the boxing public, we’re probably not going to see a fight between the two guys anytime soon, because Crawford is committed to unifying all the titles at 140 before he moves up in weight to the welterweight division.
“Do you believe in Aliens?” said Garcia “Tell Terrance Crawford we might visit him tonight. He won’t sleep tonight, always looking under his bed. He will be looking for the Cuckoo, the Cuckoo. Now Terrance Crawford is fighting Molina and he is a killer. I’m not saying Molina isn’t good. I hope he whips his [backside]. You know why Crawford is not on HBO no more? They don’t want him. They can’t sell him no more. Terrance got a big mouth. I have known him since the USA Championships. He always had a big mouth and nappy hair. Nobody liked him because he is arrogant. He is running with that stuff that he beat Danny. Danny whooped his [backside] in the USA Championships. In the amateurs, there are no losses. When you get robbed it is a bad decision. We sent you home in the USA championships. We sent you packing. Danny was the 2008 Olympic alternate.”
All this talking is probably helping Crawford instead of Danny Garcia. Angel should be focusing on helping Danny get ready for the Vargas fight instead of talking about a fighter that Danny may not fight for years from now. Danny is managed by Al Haymon, and it’s not likely he’s going to want to put him in with Crawford even when he does move up in weight to the 147lb division.
Garcia’s time as the WBC welterweight champion may be coming to an end, because he’s going to be fighting WBA champion Keith Thurman on March 4 in 2017, and he could lose that fight.