WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (27-0, 16 KO’s) will be back in the ring on March 15th against an opponent still to be determined, according to Dan Rafael. Garcia, 25, last fought in September in beating Lucas Matthysse by a 12 round unanimous decision on the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez pay-per-view card on Showtime. The Garcia-Matthysse fight was the co-feature bout, and it wasn’t quite as good as it was expected to be due to the continuous circling of the ring and holding that Garcia did in the fight.
“Been told @DannySwift’s next fight will be March 15,” Rafael said. “He’ll be defending his title, not moving up, on @SHOsports. Opponent/site TBA.”
It’s no surprise that Danny won’t be moving up in weight, because after talking about it briefly last year, Danny started to drag his feet soon after at the idea of moving up to 147 and facing the likes of Keith Thurman and Floyd Mayweather Jr. It could be that Danny realized that he’s not up to that level of fighting guys of that level.
Mayweather Jr. would obviously dominate Garcia and make him look bad, whether Garcia ran around the ring an clinched all night or not. He just doesn’t match up with Mayweather in any way. But Keith Thurman would also be a big problem for Garcia due to his power, size and movement. He’s not someone that comes forward, so clinching him wouldn’t work for Danny like it did against Matthysse. Movement wouldn’t work either because Thurman is capable of moving just as much as Danny.
It’s better for Danny to be a big fish in a small pond at 140 then for him to move up to be 147, and not have the advantages that he has at 140 in terms of him being bigger and heavier than most of his opponents. Once Danny moves up to 147, his size advantage disappears immediately, and he’d have to find other ways to win. He couldn’t do it on size any longer.
As for who Danny will be fighting on March 15th, it probably won’t be anyone interesting like Matthysse. The top two contenders ranked by the WBC are Viktor Postol and Selcuk Aydin. Those would be terrible fights, and Golden Boy Promotions would have their work cut out for them if they were to try an interest boxing fans in getting excited about Garcia fighting either of those guys.
