This coming weekend at the Staples Center, Los Angeles, former super lightweight champion Danny Garcia has a lot to prove in his WBC world title fight with Robert Guerrero, despite the fact that he enters the ring as a 31-0 undefeated fighter.
Aged 27 from Philadelphia, Garcia holds an impressive record with victories over the likes of Erik Morales, Amir Khan, Zab Judah, Lucas Matthysse, Mauricio Herrera, Lamont Peterson and Paulie Malignaggi.
His record, as eye catching as it is fails to tell the full story though. In recent times Garcia has received huge criticism for picking a poor opponent, failing to defend his titles and receiving favourable scorecard wins.
For many Garcia is extremely lucky to still have an unblemished professional record with several questionable decisions going in his favour.
After cleverly outboxing and defeating Matthysse in 2013, Garcia was regarded as the main man at the 140lbs weight class. He had shown much more to his arsenal than just a big punch and proved that he could box very effectively when required.
There were talks of a fight with Floyd Mayweather and everything seemed to be going well for Garcia when suddenly things started to take a turn for the worse.
With Garcia’s Puerto Rican heritage he decided to fight in Bayamon against the highly underrated Mauricio Herrera. For most viewers Herrera won the fight with the scorecards of 116-112, 116-112 and 114-114 showing a clear bias in favour of Garcia.
Garcia was the bigger name being built up and sadly boxing politics seemed to play their role in declaring Garcia the winner on a night when most accepted he should not have been.
The criticism Garcia faced was to escalate after the announcement that he would face the little known Rod Salka. With all respect to Salka he should never have been in the ring with Garcia and everyone knew it.
From knocking out Salka in the second round Garcia went on to face Lamont Peterson in another catchweight fight.
Peterson made the fight an extremely difficult one for Garcia and refused to allow him the sort of control that he would have expected. The early rounds were tough to score with Peterson proving an elusive target but not landing much himself.
As the fight entered the second half Peterson appeared to take control barring the odd period of Garcia success. The fight ended with Garcia looking like a man who knew had had come away second best but a majority win was declared in his favour.
Many feel that Garcia was once again lucky to come away with the win and has seen his stock fall significantly in the eyes of boxing fans.
He has since gone on to make the move up to welterweight and defeated the veteran Paulie Malignaggi by TKO.
As mentioned above Garcia will now face a fan favourite in Robert Guerrero. Aged 32 from Gilroy, California, Guerrero holds a 33-3-1 professional record which has seen him win world titles at featherweight and super featherweight before going on to fight at lightweight and welterweight.
Guerrero has entered the ring with the likes of Orlando Salido, Joel Casamayor, Michael Katsidis, Andre Berto, Floyd Mayweather and Keith Thurman over the years and has walked away with mixed fortunes.
Guerrero is an extremely likeable character with a really inspiring story behind him. He has had to take time out of the sport to care for his wife during her battle with Leukaemia. He continues to box to earn the money to be able to pay for his wife’s treatment and proves a source of encouragement for many.
He is an exciting come forward fighter who likes to entertain the fans and trade shots up close. Having been outclassed by Mayweather in 2013 Guerrero hasn’t quite been the fighter he once was though.
He was involved in an all out war with Yoshihiro Kamegai on the way to a unanimous decision win before being dropped en route to a comprehensive points loss to Keith Thurman.
After such a loss most expected a big performance from Guerrero against Aaron Martinez. Guerrero struggled badly in the fight and was knocked down in round four. He just did enough to claim a split decision win but will not have been happy with his performance.
There appears to have been something missing for Guerrero in recent fights and it may well be a case of his career catching up with him. He has been involved in a lot of tough fights and seems to have a few more miles on the clock than Garcia at this stage of their respective careers.
From a physical standpoint they are evenly matched with little difference in height and reach. They are both come forward fighters but Garcia looks to counter punch more often than Guerrero.
Both are decent technicians but Guerrero loves to be involved in a scrap and often neglects his skills and makes a fight tough for himself.
For Guerrero to be successful his best chance may be to stay more disciplined and box on the outside. He needs to frustrate Garcia as Peterson did and force him to make mistakes whilst also mixing it up on the inside on occasions.
Garcia will look to gain the centre of the ring and find the range for his left hook to land successfully. His youth may well prove the telling factor in this fight. He is the fresher fighter who can maintain a higher pace throughout the fight to outwork his man.
This is a good, competitive fight that should entertain fans with the winner walking away the WBC welterweight champion.
Garcia is the favourite coming into the fight and should really have enough to claim the win but Guerrero presents a real test for him and could spring a surprise if he isn’t at his best.
For the winner there are huge fights out there with the likes of Amir Khan, Kell Brook, Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter amongst many others all operating at the stacked 147lbs weight class.
Khan is the mandatory challenger for the WBC and if Garcia is to win then a massive rematch between the two would be set. Interest for the fight would be huge with Khan looking to show the improvements he has made from a defensive point of view.
First of all Garcia has to beat Guerrero and impress in doing so if he is to regain some of his lost reputation. He is very lucky to find himself as an unbeaten fighter and still has much to prove if fans are to hold his name in such high regard as they once did.
- Samuel Constantinou-Coulter / @samsboxinghaven
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