By Allan Fox: Former welterweight champion ‘Showtime’ Shawn Porter (28-2-1, 17 KOs) climbed into the ring last Saturday night and called out Danny ‘Swift’ Garcia (34-1, 20 KOs) following his 9th round knockout win over a feeble looking Brandon ‘Bam Bam’ Rios (34-4-1, 25 KOs) in their WBC welterweight title eliminator at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Garcia, 29, reacted angrily at Porter challenging him to a fight, as he told him they could take it outside on the street and fight. Garcia ordered Porter to get out of the ring. It was clear that Garcia did not like being confronted by Porter. The challenge was not going to work for Porter, because Garcia made it obvious that he’s not interested in fighting him.
When Garcia ordered Porter to get out of the ring, he was letting him know that will not be fighting him. That’s too bad because it would be an excellent fight for Showtime Boxing to televise rather than having Danny Garcia waste television air time beating up journeymen level fighters like Brandon Rios.
Porter, 30, is ranked No.1 by the World Boxing Council and Garcia No.2. Porter is already the mandatory challenger to WBC welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman, but he’s being forced to wait for the fight due to Thurman’s injury problems. Porter would like to fight Danny Garcia while he waits for Thurman to heal up and defend his WBC title against him. Garcia doesn’t seem like to be on the same page as Porter though.
After knocking out an arguably over-the-hill Brandon Rios last night, Garcia seems to be looking in another direction for his next fight rather than taking on Porter. If Showtime is willing to televise mismatches between Garcia and Rios, there’s no point in Garcia taking a risky fight with Porter. He can take it easy with Rios-level opposition until he gets a rematch with Thurman.
Here’s the verbal exchange between Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter that took place inside the ring last Saturday night:
Garcia: “This is my backyard.”
Porter: “You think it’s your backyard.”
Garcia: “Amir Khan, Lucas Matthysse. You’re from Ohio, boy. You’re not from Vegas.” [Note: Danny Garcia is from Philadelphia, not Las Vegas.]
Porter: “We ain’t trying to spar. We’re trying to make some money.”
Garcia: “We don’t back down from nobody. We can take it into the street if you want to.”
Showtime interviewer Jim Gray says to Porter: “You had your shot. This is Danny’s night.”
Garcia: “This is the Danny Garcia show. Get the [expletive] out of here.”
Showtime commentator Jim Gray came across like he was protecting Garcia from Porter by saying, “This is Danny’s night.” I don’t think he realizes that fighters like Porter need to call out guys like Danny Garcia to try and force them to fight. Porter has been trying to get a fight against Danny Garcia for a long time now. When Danny Garcia fought for the vacant WBC welterweight title in January 2016, Porter was bypassed for the fight by Robert Guerrero, who ranked below him in the WBC’s 147 lb. ranking. That should have been Porter and Garcia that fought for the vacant WBC title, not Garcia-Guerrero.
After Garcia won the WBC belt, he didn’t fight Porter then either. Garcia fought Samuel Vargas in a fight that was not sanctioned by the WBC as a title defense due to Vargas being ranked too low. After that fight, Garcia fought WBA welterweight champion Thurman in a unification fight last March, which he lost by a 12 round split decision. Garcia then took 11 months off from boxing until coming back to face former WBA lightweight champion Rios on Showtime. Rios isn’t rated in the top 15 at 147. He’s arguably a shot fighter at this point in his career with 4 losses in his last 7 fights.
If Danny Garcia is able to leap in front of #1 WBC Porter for a rematch with Thurman, it would look bad. Porter is already ranked ahead of Garcia, so he should be next in line for the title shot against Thurman. The WBC already let Garcia take on a lower ranked fighter in Guerrero in 2016 to fight for the WBC welterweight belt. It wouldn’t be surprising if Garcia is given a title shot against Thurman ahead of Porter.
“I got in the ring just to let him know that his job is not done,” Porter said to Fighthype about Danny Garcia. “He’s been exposed over the course of the last 3 years. If someone is not out-boxing him, they’re out-punching him. Brandon Rios looks a little slower, aggressive, and obviously doing the best he could,” Porter said.
Porter is probably wasting his time. Garcia doesn’t react to pressure to fight the quality guys. He faces who he wants to, which is why we’ve seen him take some of these fights ion the last 5 years:
• Rod Salka
• Samuel Vargas
• Paulie Malignaggi
• Mauricio Herrera
• Lamont Peterson