Danny Garcia makes his welterweight debut this Saturday against Paulie Malignaggi in New York on the PBC on ESPN card in a non-title fight that has been heavily criticised by many fans as meaningless.
Given Garcia’s recent questionable performances against Mauricio Herrera and Lamont Peterson either side of last years Rod Salka mismatch, many question why he is fighting a light-hitting 34 year old who has been inactive 15 months and is coming off a brutal beatdown at the hands of Shawn Porter last April.
However, in his latest chat via fighthype.com, his father and trainer, Angel, has defended the fight, insisting Malignaggi is a more than worthy opponent for his son, who he picks to end the New Yorker in four rounds given he isn’t fighting the scales anymore and carries more power.
“If Malignaggi wants to run around, it’s gonna take Danny a couple of rounds to catch him, so I say four rounds, (to end things) until Danny warms up, he’s a late starter,” said Garcia.
“Before he (Danny) had a fight he had two fights – he had the scale and then the opponent, so now there’s only one battle, the opponent.”
Responding to claims that perhaps Malignaggi doesn’t deserve the fight with Garcia, given Paulie was going to fight the unheralded Danny O’Connor in May before pulling out through injury, Angel said;
“I can’t talk for Paulie but I can talk for Danny – but if Paulie don’t deserve it I don’t know what he did wrong. You gotta look at his resume. He has a good resume.
“He fought killers when he was young, he fought Cotto. Cotto almost destroyed his beautiful looks, and he stood there and went 12 rounds with Cotto – destroyed – so I think he deserves it.”
And the criticism from the fans over the fight is par for the course according to Garcia, who said;
“It doesn’t bother me, it doesn’t hurt me. It comes with the package. You get the good side and you get the bad side”
Twitter @Undilutedpoison
