By Dan Ambrose: Amir Khan says he feels the November 21 fight between IBF/WBC welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr and Danny Garcia is a 50-50 affair with either guy capable of winning.
One of the reasons why Khan has doubts about Spence (26-0, 21 KOs) is his recent car crash from last October. Spence, 30, was ejected from his vehicle during the crash, and he suffered terrible enough injuries to where he needed to spend six-days in an intensive care unit in Dallas, Texas.
Spence hasn’t fought since his car crash, and he’s been out of the ring for the last 11 months. By the time Errol climbs into the ring to face Danny on November 2, he’ll have been inactive for 14 months. That’s one of the chief reasons why Khan sees the Spence vs. Garcia fight as a toss-up.
Khan knows Danny (36-2, 21KOs) all too well from having been knocked out in the 4th round by him in July 2012. During that fight, Khan did well in the first two rounds of that fight, but Danny Garcia caught him with a counter left hook in round three that put him down.
Although Khan made out of the round, he was easy prey for Garcia in the fourth round and was quickly knocked out.
Khan says Spence-Garcia = 50-50 fight
“It’s a good fight. Danny Garcia will pick his shots, but I don’t think Spence is going to let him get those shots in,” said Khan to Fighthype on the Spence vs. Garcia match. “Spence is a great fighter, and no disrespect to Danny Garcia so is he.
“The way I see the fight playing out is it starting slow, but it depends on one thing. How is Spence going to be from being in that car accident and being out of the ring for such a long time?
“Danny Garcia has kept himself ticking over; he’s kept himself moving. Really, Danny Garcia hasn’t taken that much punishment in his career. So both could come into that ring quite fresh.
“I feel it could be a 50-50 fight, but you might start to see Spence putting his hands on him. Danny’s got a good chin. He takes a great shot, but maybe he finds that shot.
“When I fought him [Danny Garcia], I was outboxing him, and he found that shot. This is boxing where you can find that shot. One thing about Danny Garcia, he’s got luck on his side,” Khan said.
It’s hard to agree with Khan on the idea of Spence vs. Garcia is a 50-50 fight, but it’s understandable why Why he views is that way.
Spence is coming off of a terrible car crash that left his high-priced Ferrari Spyder in a heap of broken metal on October 10. He was injured in the crash, lost teeth, and he’s been out of the ring for almost a year now. And by the time that Errol does battle Danny, he’ll have been inactive for 14-months.
Additionally, Spence is taking on one of the hardest punchers in the welterweight division without a tune-up. It’s not smart.
Garcia has been lucky
“All the fights I’ve seen, Danny has gotten that shot in and boom,” Khan continued. Maybe he feels that it’s the best time to catch someone like Errol Spence.
“He’s one of the best fighters in the world, but maybe because he’s been in that car accident and he’s been out of the ring for such a long time. Is he going to be the same fighter, is he going to have the same engine, and is he going to have the same power?
“Time will tell but credit to both champions because I feel this is what boxing is needed. You have to take those risks sometimes, and Danny Garcia is taking that risk going in the ring with Spence.
“There were a lot of fighters that didn’t want to fight him, but Danny Garcia is one of those guys. He said, ‘Yeah, I’ll take the fight.’ So I respect him.
“There’s nothing wrong with him being a basic fighter,” said Khan about Danny. “But he’s got great timing, and he’s very powerful and very strong. He puts his punches together really well, and he’s not a four, five, or six-punch fighter.
“He’s more of a one, two or three at the most. He’s big, and he comes into a fight big. He comes in heavy,” said Amir.
Khan knows how hard Danny Garcia hit from their fight eight years ago, and he’s aware of what he can do if he lands one of his powerful left hook counters on the chin of his opponent.
Danny hasn’t faced a lot of big punchers during his 13-year career, so you can’t say he’s been lucky. The only guys with power that Garcia has fought are Keith Thurman, Lucas Matthysse, and to a certain extent Shawn Porter.
Thurman was putting hands on Danny early on in their fight in 2017, but he backed off in the second half of the battle after he was hit a couple of times and suffered an elbow injury.
In the Matthysse fight, which is one of Danny’s biggest win of his career in 2013, he was hitting him with low blows throughout the contest that took the air out of him.
These were low blows that put Matthysse on the canvas more than once in the fight. The shots seemed to make Matthysse nervous about swinging for the fences because he never knew when he was going to get nailed with a shot downstairs.
Spence could retire Danny
“With the IBF title on the line, maybe they’ll have the 10-pound rule,” Amir said. “I don’t know if the WBC will have the 10-pound rule as well. Is that going to make a difference? Who knows?
“At the same Time, Spence is coming in big as well. I’ve been watching pictures of him, and he looks huge as well. He looks like a middleweight, really walking about. So both fighters have the size, the strength, and the power.
“I feel it’s going to be an exciting fight as well. It’s going to be an exciting fight because we’ve never seen Danny Garcia get a beating apart when I was fighting him, and I was catching him with the shots.
“I remember when [promoter] Richard Schaefer came to me and said, ‘We honestly thought the fight was going to be stopped in a round or two.’ Then he caught me with a shot. Credit to him, man.
“But I’ve never seen anyone put a beating on Danny Garcia, but with Spence’s style, he puts beatings on fighters. The way he did Kell Brook. He makes people retire, and he hurts people.
“Maybe if he [Spence] gets the game plan right and he puts a beating on Danny Garcia, with Errol Spence’s power and speed and ring IQ, he can hurt people, and he can retire them.
“Look what happened to Kell Brook. He should be retired. He’s not the same fighter he ever was. That’s the one thing about Spence. He’s very powerful and very strong, but Danny Garcia has a lot left in the engine,” said Khan.
Khan is going overboard with his speculation in guessing on the possibility of Spence sending Garcia into retirement. For Spence to wreck Danny’s career to that extent, he ould need to injure him severely.
Kell Brook’s career is still going despite having suffered a bad eye injury against Spence from their contest in 2017.
The reason Brook’s career has dropped off is more of a situation where he hasn’t kept busy the way he needed to for him to remain relevant.
Questions will be answered
“I feel this will be a good fight to see, and I feel it’ll be like a game of chess. I’m sure Spence is going to be quite wary of his power, but at the same time, if he lets his shots go and leaves himself open.
“I’ve never seen Spence get caught with a good shot. So I think this is going to answer a lot of questions, and I think it’s going to be one of the toughest fights he’s had. Really, he fought a beat-up Kell Brook, who was already gone.
“Shawn Porter has a similar style to Danny, and that was a close fight. So with Shawn Porter’s style with the power of Danny Garcia in there, I think it’ll be quite exciting to see what’s going to happen in there,” said Khan.
On November 21, we’re going to fight out not only can Spence handle taking big shots, but we’re also going to see what Danny can handle. Spence is by far the hardest puncher that Danny’ Swift’ will have faced since his match against Matthysse in 2013.
Matthysse was a small welterweight, and he arguably should have been fighting at 140. In contrast, Spence is enormous for the 147-lb division, and he should be fighting at 154. The same goes for Danny Garcia, but he doesn’t have the frame that Spence has.