It has been announced that the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather v Saul Alvarez fight is to contain a fight which could so easily be the headline itself.
Danny ‘Swift’ Garcia is to face-off against Lucas ‘The Machine’ Matthysse is a mouth-watering light-welterweight contest. Many are billing this as the fight to determine who the king of the division is. Both fighters have impressive records and concussive punch-power making for a real all-action, pure drama fight that the public will love.
25 year old Garcia, WBC, WBA and Ring Magazine Champ, heads in the fight with an undefeated record of 25-0 including victories over the likes of Amir Khan, Erik Morales and Zab Judah. All of these boxers mentioned have been world champions so this really highlights the caliber of boxer that we are talking about with Danny Garcia.
Garcia destroyed Amir Khan with in their fight with some huge punched exposing Khan’s defensive fragility. One point for me though is that until Garcia landed the big shot Khan was winning the fight. For me Khan showed glimpses of what you need to do to beat Garcia. You need to box using in-and-out tactics and remain cagey. This is something that can be successfully against Danny but a method that will not be implemented by Matthysse.
Another notable factor for Garcia is his trainer and father Angel Garcia. His father seems to have the skill to irritate and rattle Danny’s opponents to the point where they lose their game-plan and try to get involved in a war with Garcia. His father is loud and controversial but a very clever man who knows exactly what he is doing and he knows that his son possesses great power and can knock opponents out with single shots.
Matthysse heads into this fight with the label of one of the biggest, if not the biggest pound for pound puncher in the business. His power is scary to watch at times and you can hear the shots thundering into his opponents like no other. He heads into this fight with a record of 34-2-1 with 32 ko’s. The presence of 32 ko’s from 34 wins highlights just how big a puncher he is.
Matthysse has been in with the likes of Devon Alexander, Zab Judah and Lamont Peterson. Lucas has lost to both Alexander and Judah but both were extremely controversial with many believing that she should have been given the nod in both fights. Many will say oh look Garcia beat Judah and Matthysse didn’t so that makes Garcia the favorite. It is not as simple as that. Firstly, Judah was a better boxer in 2010 when he fought Matthysse in what was an extremely controversial decision and most importantly, different styles suit different opponents.
Matthysse was last seen crushing Lamont Peterson in a 141lb catch-weight fight. Matthysse initially landed a big left-hand in the 2nd which forced Peterson to the floor and then finished the job in the 3rd with two more huge left hands knocking Peterson down. The punches contained incredible power for a man of his weight. It is just remarkable and makes him a real danger to any boxer.
I expect Danny Garcia to look to try and use more technical boxing skills than we would usually see from him in this fight as he can’t go toe to toe with Matthysse. Both men contain real power but Matthysse’s is on another level.
To be successful Garcia must use his technique to box his way in and land quick combinations and then get out of range quickly. If he does this consistently without getting drawn into many toe to toe exchanges than he has a legitimate chance of success.
Matthysse will do what he always does, he will look to come forward and dominate his opponent putting them under real pressure. Matthysse will be high of confidence following his demolition job on Peterson and will be confident of repeating that success on Garcia and becoming the best in the division.
Making a prediction on this fight is a really difficult one with both having great claims to suggest that they will win. I am backing the Argentine Matthysse to come through this one via a late knock-out. He is such a big puncher and is really on form with no one taking him the distance since 2011 with the controversial loss to Alexander. I just think that Garcia at some point will do what comes naturally to him and look to trade blows which will be his downfall.
Whatever the result of the fight one thing can be assured, that it will be pure entertainment. Both fighters are great to watch and are real crowd pleasers so their styles should gel well to create a heart-pumping fight.
This fight is a huge one and in many regards should be the main event of a card not the chief support. The reason that it has been made as chief support to the Canelo v Mayweather fight is because it is a great platform for both fighters to appear on. There are going to be massive amounts of people watching the fight all across the world so it will expose them to the more casual boxing fan that they may not be able to capture on their own. It is a very shrewd move of Golden Boy and shows why they are the dominant force in the sport at the moment.
I am so excited for this night of boxing and am crossing off the days. 14th September put this date in your diaries and keep it free. You are not going to want to miss this!
