Danny Garcia – One step forward, two steps back

Danny Garcia – One step forward, two steps back 

On Sept. 14 of last year, the world was abuzz over boxing’s biggest event in years. Floyd Mayweather met Canelo Alvarez in a fight that ranks second in all-time PPV buys. The fight itself lacked drama (unless you count CJ Ross’ draw scorecard) and simply underwhelmed.

The co-main event between Danny Garcia and Lucas Matthysse was another fight that had everyone buzzing in anticipation of what may be. Whilst stopping his opponents within the distance six consecutive times before the bout, Matthysse was the favourite going into the fight and was tipped by many to stop Garcia. Of 34 “experts” polled by RingTV before the fight, only four picked Garcia to win.

Garcia (28-0, 16 knockouts) went on to show the boxing fans that he could box technically and produced an impressive boxing class of poise and patience against the tough hitting brawler. He wowed the crowd with his ability to give Matthysse a very small target to hit and kept his defense tight to stop the Argentinian’s arsenal from landing. He also unleashed his attack on Matthysse precisely and cleanly to win the fight on a points decision.

He won many boxing fans over after that performance and many tipped the Philadelphian world champion to go to greater heights. This win topped up a great succession of wins for Garcia including victories over Amir Khan, Zab Judah and Erik Morales. Maybe a move to 147 pounds to mix it up with the elite of the welterweight division or a fight with Lamont Peterson to unify the light welterweight division were now in the cards.

We were all left disappointed as none of routes transpired as the majority of boxing public wanted to see Garcia in a big fight again. After the Matthysse fight, Garcia had the opportunity for him to catapult his career further but failed to do so.

He went on to face Mauricio Herrera (21-4, 7 KOs) in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. What he, and many others, would have thought would have been a routine win, Garcia was very lucky to get the points decision win as Herrera fought a fight of champions. If victories were always earned on performance in the ring rather than connections, Herrera might have won that fight.

The Herrera performance was a step back for Garcia as he was consistently beaten to the punch and throughout the whole fight did not show the sense of hunger or brutalness that he showed in the past. All credit to Herrera for making this fight his. It was a very lacklustre performance, but as a champion he would now know that he cannot afford to produce another below par performance otherwise he risks the wrath of losing his titles. Garcia showed that a pressure fighter style can cause him difficulty and surely he’ll have learnt this from this for such future bouts.

Moving on from the Herrera fight, many thought Garcia would put that performance behind him and would look upwards and onwards. He now faces Rod Salka (19-3, 3 KOs), a virtually unknown fighter on Aug. 9 at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, New York. Although no fault to Salka, who will undoubtedly come to win as it is his biggest fight to date, this fight adds no credibility to Garcia’s career.

Don’t get me wrong, Garcia has had a very proud and successful career to date. Only 26 years old, he carries the WBC and WBA light welterweight titles, and has sixteen knockouts in twenty eight fight including prolific fighters like Amir Khan and Erik Morales. He has swept away the light welterweight division with the fights he has been allowed to have (although if the Cold War had ended then who knows what would have happened) but currently remains in a state of nonchalance.

It seems post Matthysse fight, where I thought he took a step forward in his career, he seems to have taken two steps back. The last thing Danny Garcia wants is to go from a renowned world champion to a forgotten world champion.

- Oun Abbas Hussain / @ouney86

- UK correspondent for www.BehindTheGloves.com