Danny Garcia (36-2, 21 KOs) is ready to rip away Errol Spence’s IBF and WBC welterweight titles from him to become the #1 fighter in the division on Saturday night on Fox Sports PPV from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
The underdog Garcia, 32, has proven himself in the not too distant past as being the #1 fighter at 140, and now he wants to duplicate that fete by doing it at 147.
It’s taken Danny a little longer to become the top dog at welterweight than when he fought at 140, as he suffered a couple of close defeats against Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter in fights that could have gone his way.
Against Spence, Danny plans on taking the judges out of the equation by knocking him out on Saturday night. Garcia wants to leave no doubt by knocking ou Spence by the seventh.
Danny’s dad Angel Garcia thinks Spence is making a big mistake in returning from his car accident against his son rather than taking a tune-up.
Spence is taking a big risk, and Angel sees this gamble turning sour when he suffers his first loss.
Danny Garcia looking to take #1 from Spence
“Listen, I’ve heard it all before; I’ve been in this game for a while. It’s easy to talk, but it’s hard to back it up,” said Danny Garcia to ESPN.
“Danny, you’ve been pretty active. I know you haven’t fought since last January, but for the most part, you’ve been pretty active throughout your career,” said Smith.
“Errol Spence obviously had that nasty car accident. Why is it that you’re fighting Errol Spence Jr instead of Terence Crawford? I don’t know the answer to that question. Forgive me; I’m just asking.
“Could it be business, or could it be something else? Why does that happen?” said Smith in pushing Danny to say why he’s not fighting Crawford, who is one of ESPN’s fighters.
“You know what the answer is. He’s [Spence] the #1 guys,” said Danny Garcia in letting ESPN know that he doesn’t view Crawford as #1. “He has two titles, and I want to be the #1 guy, so that’s why I want to fight him,” said Garcia.
Whoever wins Saturday’s fight between Spence and Garcia will be viewed as #1 at 147. That’s not a knock on Terence Crawford, but he doesn’t have the fan base or the visibility to be viewed in the same light as the Spence-Garcia winner.
The ESPN commentators are really eager to see the Spence vs. Garcia winner face Crawford, but that’s not going to be easy to do. First of all, there’s a network issue that would need to be overcome to put that fight together.
Secondly, there are still many options for important fights with PBC against Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Manny Pacquiao, and Yorgenis Ugas.
Garcia beats Spence by making adjustments
“Errol Spence Jr is something else,” said Max Kellerman. “He’s taken great shots; he has punching power, hand speed, he’s a southpaw, he’s got range, he can box, he can punch. How do you go about beating him?”
“We have to make adjustments,” said Danny Swift. “Go in there and let him feel my power, and I’m a skillful fighter.
“I’ve been in this game for a while, and I feel like he’s never been in the ring with a fighter like me.
“So I got to go in there, make adjustments, fight hard, and dig deep like I’ve been doing my whole career,” said Garcia.
Danny will have to make adjustments on the fly against Spence because he’s going to be changing things up on Saturday night.
Garcia can’t count on Spence coming into the fight with one game plan and not switching things up multiple times.
First and foremost, Garcia needs to be ready for Spence to be boxing him from the outside at the beginning of the fight.
Spence isn’t going to want to get hit by any of Garcia’s big shots, especially given that he’s coming off of a car crash.
But Spence lacks discipline, so he’ll quickly start slugging like he always does, and that’ll put Danny in a position to counter him with his big left hooks and potentially knock him out.
Garcia views this fight as crucial
“I’ve always thought you were an excellent fighter, and I think this is going to be a great fight,” said Stephen A Smith in complimenting Garcia.
“I can’t wait to see it. I want to know from your perspective what this fight means to you. Listen, we’re at a time right now; we’re looking for Errol Spence.
“We all want him against Terence Crawford because of the perception of them being two great fighters. Obviously, we see Pacquiao still in that division, and we saw what he did to Keith Thurman.
“You have people speculating about what his future might hold, and Danny Garcia’s name doesn’t get mentioned nearly as much as I think it should.
“Knowing how important this fight is to you in terms of your career moving forward?”
“I think this fight is significant to me,” said Danny Garcia. “This is the biggest fight to date in my career.
“I’ve been in some big fights, but I feel like this is the biggest fight right now in my career.
“I have to go in there, get this victory, and look good to show the people that I am one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
“That’s why I’m a three-time champion. I’ve been fighting the best and beating the best since I stepped into the top level,” said Garcia.
This is perhaps the biggest fight of Garcia’s career, not only because he’s facing the #1 welterweight, but also due to Danny’s struggles in the last three years.
Garcia lost his WBC welterweight title in 2017 to Keith Thurman, and then he was beaten by Shawn Porter in 2018 when he attempted to capture the vacant WBC 147-lb title.
Those losses have many boxing fans believing that Danny is over-the-hill and no longer talented enough to compete with the division’s best welterweights.
If Garcia defeats Spence, he’ll have shown that he’s still at his best and the new king of the 147lb division.
Danny not expecting Spence to be depleted
“The boxing people know how good you are, Danny, and the loss to Thurman was a close, tough fight,” said Kellerman.
“Your only other loss was to Porter in one of his two best career performances, which was a very close fight. If he didn’t get knocked down late, it could go either way.
“But Spence is coming off of this car accident. He even said, ‘from the outside looking in; I’d have the same questions about me.’
“What do you think about him jumping right in with his first fight back with a fighter like you?
“That’s a huge risk. Is that commentary about what he thinks of you or how confident he is? What do you think about that?”
“Only he knows what he can do,” said Garcia. “I came to this camp, trained hard so that Danny Garcia got the right training, the right running, and the right nutrition and everything.
“It’s more focus on myself, and to prepare myself for the best Errol Spence. I can’t go into this fight, thinking, ‘Oh, he had a car accident.
“He’s not going to be the same; it’s going to be easy.’ That’s not on my mind. I was supposed to fight him in January.
“That was my mindset, the same mindset from January, and then he got in the accident, and COVID happened.
“So my mindset was to fight the best Errol Spence, and that’s the hard work that I put in.
“I put in three hard months of training camp, and I feel great physically,” said Garcia.
Danny has got the right idea to be expecting Spence, 30, to be at his best and not impacted by his car crash. It’s important that Danny to be ready for the best version of Spence because he won’t be in for a surprise if he shows up at 100%.
Spence has said it himself that he’s had all the medical exams to prove that he’s healthy and ready to resume his career. Danny is taking Spence at his word, and he’s going to be coming to hurt him on Saturday.
If fans don’t want to give Garcia credit for beating Spence, that’s on them, but he’s going to be happy with the win, and he’ll view himself as the new #1 fighter at 147.
