By Dan Ambrose: WBC welterweight champion Danny “Swift” Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) will be in action this Saturday night against contender Samuel Vargas 25-2-1, 13 KOs) in their fight on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike from the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Vargas is not a great choice for an opponent for Garcia.
It looks bad that Garcia’s management selected Vargas as his opponent, because he was knocked out just last year in four rounds by Errol Spence in April 2015. There’s no gain on Garcia’s part to fight someone that was knocked out so quickly by Spence.
The only way it works well for Garcia is if he can KO Vargas quicker than Spence did, and that’s unlikely because he’s not as big or as powerful as Spence. Garcia is small for a welterweight, and he’s likely going to be winning his fights by decision much of the time unless his management can keep matching him against guys like Vargas. Since his loss to Spence, Vargas has won his last five fights in beating the following obscure fighters: Juan Armando Garcia, Edgar Ortega, Robson Assis, Ulises Jimenz and Cesar Chavez.
The Garcia vs. Vargas fight will not have Garcia’s WBC title on the line. It looks like the World Boxing Council is going to allow Garcia to take a non-title defense against Vargas without stripping him of his title.
This is a voluntary defense Garcia is taking to get him ready for his unification match next year against WBA champion Keith Thurman. Garcia only recently won the WBC title last January in beating Robert Guerrero for earlier this year in January. A lot of boxing fans felt that both Garcia and Guerrero were unworthy contenders to fight for the vacant WBC title. Garcia had fought only three times at welterweight before challenging for the WBC title in beating Rod Salka and Lamont Peterson at catch-weights, and beating 36-year-old Paulie Malignaggi.
When you compare those fights to some of the contenders that Garcia wasn’t matched against in Errol Spence Jr. and Shawn Porter, it looks bad. Guerrero was entirely unsuitable for a world title shot in the mind of many fans because he had lost two out of his last four fights going into the Garcia fight for the vacant WC 147lb. At that point in Guerrero’s career, he was hardly in position to be fighting for a world title. The WBC had their reasons for letting Guerrero fight for their title. It would be interesting to know why they selected him over someone like Errol Spence Jr. or Shawn Porter.
Manny Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum said that Danny Garcia is one of four possible opponents for Pacquiao’s next fight. With Garcia looking to fight Thurman in a unification match in early 2017, it doesn’t look possible for him to be fighting Pacquiao in the first half of 2017. It’s unclear why Arum mentioned Garcia’s name as one of the possibilities for Pacquiao to fight in his next fight. The only way that fight comes off is if Garcia chooses not to fight Thurman next. If Arum is serious about a fight between Pacquiao and Garcia, then it would be in Garcia’s best interest to take that fight if it can get made.
It would be on pay-per-view, and not necessarily HBO pay-per-view. It would doable fight for Garcia with potentially more money to be made than what he would get for a fight against Thurman. A unification match against Thurman would be a non-PPV fight. Garcia probably wouldn’t get the big money that some of Pacquiao’s past opponents received for fights against him when he was routinely bringing in huge pay-per-view numbers for his fights.
Pacquiao’s fights against Brandon Rios, Chris Algieri and his 2016 fight against Tim Bradley didn’t bring in a lot of buys. Pacquiao;’s fight against Jessie Vargas last Saturday might not have brought in a lot of buys as well. If Garcia asks for too much money for a fight against Pacquiao, then that fight won’t happen. Arum would likely look in another direction towards matching Pacquiao against one of his own fighters. Arum has Top Rank fighters Terence Crawford and Vasyl Lomahenko as possible options for Pacquiao’s next fight. If Arum can convince Lomachenko to fight Pacquiao next, then that might be a doable fight if he can’t get Danny Garcia.