By Dan Ambrose: Danny ‘Swift’ Garcia (34-1, 20 KOs) says he’s not ducking a fight against IBF World welterweight champion Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr. (23-0, 20 KOs), who called him and is offering him a title shot at his IBF belt.
Last night following his 9th round knockout win over Brandon ‘Bam Bam’ Rios (34-4-1, 25 KOs), Garcia was asked about whether he would he would be interested in facing Spence. Garcia said that it’s not up to him who he fights. It’s up to his manager Al Haymon. He’s the one that picks out his opponents, Garcia said.
The boxing world wants to see Garcia accept the challenge from Spence, as he could have fought him last January. Spence offered Garcia the fight, but he didn’t accept it. Instead of fighting Danny Garcia, Spence got stuck with Lamont Peterson in what turned out to be a mismatch with Spence knocking him out in 7 rounds.
”We can fight at the end of the year, since he says he not ducking no action,” Spence said about Danny Garcia on his social media.
Spence, 28, is fighting next on June 16 in Dallas, Texas. He still doesn’t have an opponent for that date. So if Danny Garcia is interested in fighting for a title immediately, he’s got the option of facing Spence in June. It’s either Garcia fight Spence in June or he wait until 2019 to face WBA/WBC welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs) in a rematch.
Thurman has already said 2018 is a “get back year” and that he’s just going to be fighting opposition ranked #5 and lower. Garcia is ranked too high for him to be considered an option for Thurman in 2018. Thurman, 28, wants to take it easy this year because he’s coming back from elbow surgery. Some of the contenders waiting for a title shot against Thurman are saying that if he wants to take it easy, then he should vacate his WBA/WBC 147 lb. titles and take it easy on his own time without sitting on the titles and facing weak opposition.
”I don’t duck nobody,” Garcia said to Fighthype when asked his thoughts about being called about by Spence. ”I like I said before, Al Haymon is the manager. If you want to fight let’s fight. No fighter makes his own matches in boxing. Boxing is handled by the managers and other people like that. It’s a fight (Spence) that is eventually going to happen. Everybody is going to fight everybody. Everybody is going to fight eventually. That’s how I fought Thurman. And if it’s not him, it’s going to be a newcomer. There’s always going to be somebody new. I can’t fight everybody all the time,” Garcia said.
Danny Garcia blaming his match-making on his manager sounds like he’s not going to be fighting Spence anytime soon. Garcia is probably right about him eventually facing Spence, but that probably won’t happen until after he wins the WBA/WBC titles off of Thurman. Once that happens, Spence will hold 3 of the 4 world titles at 147. Garcia would have no other choice but to fight Spence at that point unless Haymon wants to match him up against whoever the WBO welterweight belt holder is at that point.
It could be Terence Crawford holding the WBO belt soon. Garcia probably won’t ever be matched against Crawford. Spence might have to wait until he’s holding the IBF, WBA and WBC welterweight titles before Garcia takes a fight against him. Spence obviously won’t turn down the fight with Garcia, but I can see how might be tempted to ignore him to get back at him for ducking him when he was coming up.
Garcia wants to avenge his loss to Thurman. Last March, Thurman beat Garcia by a close 12 round decision. Garcia feels he knows how to fix the mistakes he made in that fight to beat Garcia. Maybe it’s possible that Garcia can avenge his loss, but he’s going to have to wait for Thurman to finish out his “get back year” before he looks to face him in 2019. Garcia is going to have to fight somebody else in his next fight in 2018. He’s already used one faded fighter in Brandon Rios. Will Danny Garcia fight another faded name from the past like Victor Ortiz, Luis Collazo or Devon Alexander next? I wouldn’t be surprised if one of those guys winds up as Garcia’s next opponent. Garcia mentioned wanting to fight Amir Khan. That fight isn’t going to happen yet because Khan is being brought back slowly by his new promoter Eddie Hearn. He’s trying to build up a fight between Khan and Kell Brook. Danny Garcia would be too dangerous for Khan. I expect Garcia to fight Ortiz or Alexander in his next fight. Being matched against faded fighters is going to make Garcia look like an old timer.
”I feel like I have to avenge that loss,” Garcia said about his loss to Keith Thurman. “I’m not desperate. Danny Garcia is not desperate for no fight. I’m the one that puts people in the seats at the Barclay Center,” Garcia said.