One week out from his 143 .lb. Catch-Weight meeting with IBF champion Lamont(33-2-1, 17KO’s) Peterson, WBA Super and WBC World super lightweight champion Danny ‘Swift’ Garcia(29-0, 17KO’s) granted Thaboxingvoice.com an audience.
The upcoming fight will be held on NBC’s new ‘Premier Boxing Champions’ programme, the vehicle that is attempting to take boxing back to network television in the US for the first time in decades. The aim is to have top level fighters appearing on a consistent basis for free, and Garcia vs. Peterson is a prime example of the level of quality Al Haymon -the manager/incognito-promoter who has masterminded the transition- is trying to give the public.
Garcia and Peterson are both under the Haymon umbrella, and Garcia for one has severed his professional ties with his former promoters -the Oscar De La Hoya headed Golden Boy Promotions- in order to go down this newly paved avenue on NBC. He insists no hard feelings were born from the split though.
“Golden Boy, they built my career up, I’m thankful for that. They gave me the big fights; I’m grateful for everything there’s no bad blood between me and Golden Boy.”
Garcia became a double champion under their guidance, claiming the vacant WBC strap against Erik Morales before sensationally stopping Amir Khan for the WBA to partly unify the division. He was also awarded The Ring Magazine title for his efforts. But his switch between GB Promotions and Al Haymon is just a small part of a giant coup by the latter where a huge number of fighters jumped ship in order to facilitate this new venture on NBC; it was “just business.”
While Garcia has found a new team to arrange his fights, he may also need to find a new weight division. This 143 .lb. catchweight is the second fight running where he has chosen to forgo trimming those last few pounds. He is very big for his division and explains how he may finally have to make the step up if dropping the weight becomes too strenuous for him.
“I’ve been fighting at 140 since 2006 since the amateurs, so it’s getting a little tough on my body. If I can’t make 140 in the summer time, I’m just gonna go up to 147.”
Much has been made of Garcia participating in two catchweight fights in a row but his reasoning is fair. However, he is still in possession of two titles he isn’t defending, so it seems unjust for him to be able to keep hold of them. He is a deserved champion but if his body can’t make the weight anymore he is making the right decision in jumping up, and then we have a new face in a welterweight class that is already stacked with killers.
