By Eric Baldwin: Contender Samuel Vargas (25-2-1, 13 KOs) is planning on shocking the fans and media this Saturday night by beating WBC welterweight champion Danny “Swift” Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) in their fight on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike TV at Liacouras Center, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
It would be surprising if the 6 WBA Vargas is able to pull off an upset against Garcia, because he was clearly selected by Garcia’s management as a guy that wouldn’t give him any problems at all. Vargas was selected because he was viewed as a sure thing win for the 28-year-old Garcia.
Vargas doesn’t like the idea that the media see him as someone that Garcia is going to beat in order to get to his bigger fight against WBA World welterweight champion Keith “One Time” Thurman for early 2017. Vargas believes that he’s been overlooked by fans, media and most importantly by Garcia himself. He’s going to go out and spoil Garcia’s plans on Saturday night.
What makes it difficult to imagine Garcia getting the win over Garcia is how easily he was beaten by Errol Spence last year by a 4th round knockout in April 2015. With the way that Spence treated Vargas like a glorified speed bump in that fight, it makes you wonder whether Garcia will be able to do the same thing against him. It wouldn’t be surprising news if Garcia is able to obliterate Vargas, because the boxing world expects that.
Would be surprising is if Vargas is able to beat Garcia or make him fight tooth and nail to get the win. If Garcia can’t even beat Vargas with ease, then it suggests that he won’t stand a chance when he gets inside the ring with Thurman next year.
We already saw how badly Garcia struggled to beat Robert Guerrero last January, and how he was almost beaten by Lamont Peterson last year. Those performances by Garcia showed that he’s not going to be a dominate fighter at 147 like he was at 140. The fights also showed that unless Garcia’s management match him carefully, he’s likely going to start losing from time to time starting with his fight against Thurman next year.
“I’m going there to explode everyone’s plans and to make my name known,” said Vargas to Fight News. I’ve been an underdog my whole life. I just keep persisting. We’re ready for a tough fight. We know who Danny is. He hits hard, but we’re ready for all of that. We’re going to be there to take the win. It really comes down to how mentally strong he is. I think the media is playing a big role. It could be a distraction for him. The media makes it seem like he’s just going to fight Keith Thurman. I think that’s beneficial for me. I’m a legitimate guy and I’m going to be there, and I’m going to take the win.”
It’s not probable that Vargas is going to be able to do the job on Garcia. He does seem to have good power on his shots, but he’s not as big of a puncher as Garcia. Vargas’ best chance of beating Garcia would be for him to bide his time in the first six rounds before coming on to try and take the fight from rounds seven to ten. That’s how Lamont Peterson was able to get the better of Garcia by going after him in the end half of their fight.
Vargas will need to focus on his boxing skills in the first part of the fight in order to avoid getting hit with Garcia’s powerful left hooks while he’s still fresh and powerful. Once Garcia starts to tire a little, then Vargas can go after him and try to get the knockout.