By Kenneth Friedman: The date for the Errol Spence Jr vs. Danny Garcia November fight on pay-per-view will be officially announced during the August 8 Jamal James vs. Thomas Dulorme broadcast on Fox. Mike Coppinger says the Spence-Garcia fight will be made official on that date.
Also, Shawn Porter vs. Sebastian Formella will be announced as well during the same broadcast.
Danny has a puncher’s chance against Spence, and that’s pretty much the only shot he has of winning. Spence is too good of a boxer for Garcia to beat him by a decision if he chooses to box him the way he did Mikey Garcia.
Spence has an excellent chin, though, and he had only been hurt once in his career against Emmanuel Lartei Lartey in October 2013. Lartey was a heavy-handed guy, and he caught Spence with a perfect shot that had him staggering drunkenly around the ring. Spence did an excellent job of recovering, and he was able to box his way to a relatively easy eight-round decision.
Spence views Danny Garcia as a tune-up
Garcia (36-2, 21 KOs) will be attempting to dethrone IBF/WBC welterweight champion Spence Jr (26-0, 21 KOs), who is coming off of a terrible car crash nine months ago. Many people see the accident as a chance for Danny ‘Swift’ Garcia to defeat Spence by taking advantage of him possibly not being at 100% for the fight.
Although the 2012 U.S Olympian Spence maintains that Garcia is a tune-up level fight for him in November, this could be anything but a warm-up. Garcia is a big puncher, and he’s an excellent counter-puncher a well. With Spence’s habit of getting involved in wars with his opponent, he’s going to give Danny every chance to beat him, possibly by a knockout.
Everything that Spence went through in 2019 with the grueling 12-round war against Shawn Porter and his car crash last October, it puts him in a vulnerable position going into the Garcia fight.
Spence, 30, suffered a broken jaw, cuts and lost some teeth during the accident, which took place in Dallas, Texas. A month earlier, Spence defeated WBC 147lb champion Shawn Porter by a 12 round split decision on September 28.
Garcia is a former two-division world belt holder at 140 and 147. He captured his titles beating these fighters:
- Erik Morales – WBC 140-pound belt in 2012
- Amir Khan – WBA 140lb title [2012]
- Robert Guerrero – WBC 147-lb belt in 2016
Danny doesn’t handle the pressure well
What is easy to criticize about Danny is the level of opposition he beat to capture his world titles at light-welterweight and welterweight. Garcia didn’t have to face a talented 140lb fighter like Josh Taylor, Jose Ramirez, or Regis Prograis. He beat a couple of flawed fighters to win his belts at 140.
Likewise, Garcia won his WBC welterweight strap beating Robert Guerrero by a 12 round unanimous decision in 2016 in a fight that was much closer than the scores handed down.
Some boxing fans believe it should have been scored as a 12 round draw instead of a win for Danny. But this wasn’t the first time that Garcia lucked out with the scoring during his 13-year pro career. Garcia’s wins over Mauricio Herrera and Lamont Peterson were both controversial, with fans believing that he was given gifts.
What the Herrera and Peterson fights showed is Danny doesn’t handle pressure well. When he’s backed up by his opponents, he struggles, especially if he’s unable to land his big left hook with any regularity.
Garcia is coming off of a 12 round unanimous decision win over former lightweight Ivan Redkach earlier this year on January 25 in Brooklyn, New York. Though Danny did win by a comprehensive set of scores, it wasn’t an impressive effort from him. He looks slow, methodical, and uninspired in plodding through the 12 round fight.
After the fight, Garcia was ripped by boxing fans, who thought he didn’t look world-class in his performance. Whether that was a motivation issue, training problem, or age-related thing for Danny is unknown. All we can say for sure is Garcia looked nothing like an elite 147-pounder with his victory. It could be age starting to creep in with Garcia, who just turned 32 last March.
Garcia hasn’t had a serious fight since 2018
Danny hasn’t fought a quality opponent since his 12 round decision loss to Shawn Porter in September 2018. It was a close win for ‘Showtime’ Porter, who got the nod on the scorecards by the scores 116-112, 115-113, and 115-113. Boxing News 24 scored it for Porter eight rounds to four [116-112].
What’s disappointing about Garcia is his response to his defeat to Porter, which was a classic with him returning to facing lesser opposition. The soft fights that Danny has sprinkled around the rare instances of him fighting talented guys have slowed his career down, making it impossible for him to build a considerable following.
Danny Garcia’s best opposition during his 13-year career:
- Lamont Peterson
- Lucas Matthysse
- Amir Khan
- Kendall Holt
- Zab Judah
- Mauricio Herrera
- Keith Thurman – SD 12 loss
- Shawn Porter – UD 12 loss
- Adrian Granados
Of that bunch, only Porter and Thurman stand out. Matthysse and Peterson were both flawed fighters at 140, who beat a lot of lesser opposition. When they stepped it up against better opponents, they were exposed as not being good enough.
The rest of the opposition that Danny has fought during his career has been nothing to shout about in any way. He’s taken a lot of easy opponents that some would say were gimmes. Hence, that’s one of the reasons why Danny has been nicknamed ‘Cherry Garcia’ by many boxing fans.
Throughout his career, Danny has taken too many easy fights and fails to take on the talented fighters when he needs to, making it difficult for fans to get excited about him.
Top Rank wanted Garcia to face Terence Crawford for a long time, but the contest hasn’t been made.
Spence wanted to fight Danny years ago, and yet the match never happened. Some fans feel that Danny ducked Spence.
Where does the Spence-Garcia winner go?
Spence has made it clear that he wants to fight Manny Pacquiao and Terence Crawford after he deals with Garcia. But if neither of the fighters is available in early 2021, then Spence may face his #1 IBF contender Kudratillo Abduqaxorov or face #1 WBC Porter in a rematch.
Porter would be the more lucrative fight for Spence, and it would be the right way for him to prove to the boxing world that he can conclusively beat him.
Some would argue that the only reason Garcia is fighting Spence now is he doesn’t have any other options. Spence holds the IBF and WBC welterweight titles, and the WBO title is in possession of Crawford.
Garcia would like to fight WBA welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, but he hasn’t had the opportunity. Pacquiao probably would have fought Garcia by now if he didn’t lose to Thurman and Porter. It’s hard for Pacquiao to get motivated by challenging Danny when he sees him losing to Thuman, a fighter he recently beat, and Porter.
Prediction:
Provided Spence doesn’t get clipped by one of Danny’s solid left hooks, he should win an easy 12 round decision. The fight will only be as tricky as Spence makes it. If Spence plays it safe and boxes from the outside, he’ll take away Garcia’s only chance of winning, which is to land his left hook. That’s his ‘Hail Mary’ shot at beating Errol.
The timing works against Danny winning this fight, unfortunately. If Garcia fought Spence before his car crash and his war with Porter, then he would have stood a better chance of getting the victory.
Back then, Spence would have brawled with Garcia to try and impress the boxing public by knocking him out. He’s not likely to do that now after the punishment he absorbed in the Porter fight and the car crash.
So unless Spence chooses to fight Danny’s style of brawling, this will be a comfortable 12 round decision victory for Spence. On the other hand, if there’s unseen damage to Spence’s brain from his car accident, then Garcia has a great shot at winning.
Spence says been checked out by doctors and is 100 percent healthy, but we’ll see if that’s true in November when he meets Garcia.