It was not long ago when I started hearing about an up-and-coming 140-pound boxer from Philadelphia named Danny “Swift” García. I first saw him against veteran Kendall Holt in a PPV undercard I can’t remember. That day I thought he was not the most gifted boxer but he had the right attitude, a winning attitude.
His most significant win came against dangerous Argentine Lucas Matthysse on the undercard of Mayweather-Canelo. He clearly out-hustled the challenger in a Fight of the Year candidate. That day I became convinced that “Swift” was the man at 140 pounds.
When his fight against Mauricio Herrera was announced I saw it with good eyes. He was coming off a great streak of name opponents and deserved something simpler for his homecoming fight in Puerto Rico, his parent’s place of birth. I don’t know if he trained less, over trained, or lost focus. Clearly his mind was not in the ring that night. He made no adjustments at all while being clearly beat to the punch in most of the rounds and got an undeserved decision.
As an analyst, I think that getting the win did more bad than good to Danny. If he had lost (officially), he would have probably chased an immediate rematch with Herrera and I’m sure he would have won on impressive fashion. Instead he got star fever. Getting a win when in reality it’s supposed to be a loss makes the athlete think he/she stands above everyone else.
He is scheduled to fight an opponent named Rod Salka on August 9th in New York. The WBC and WBA (he has both titles at 140) have decided not to sanction the fight. Salka is not ranked in the top 15 in either of the two sanctioning bodies. This means that next month all we will see is an exhibition for Danny García live on Showtime.
There is the possibility that Mauricio Herrera took something away from Danny last March in Bayamón. Maybe the fact that someone withstood everything he had and didn’t fold change the way his boxing mind works. “Swift” had his moments in the fight, especially in the last 2 rounds, but it was not nearly enough.
Mauricio Herrera returned on the Canelo-Lara undercard with a solid win over Johan Pérez. That fight should have been a rematch with Danny García to settle any doubts and move forward.
Danny needs to make a statement in next month’s fight against Rod Salka. He picked someone without a ranking and should do what champions do; win in impressive fashion and give his conqueror(Herrera) his deserved rematch.
“Swift” became famous for fighting the best guys available. I hope his state of mind is still like it was when he knocked Amir Khan out.
