WBC welterweight champion Danny “Swift” Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs) has his last hurdle in front of him tomorrow night in Samuel Vargas before he faces WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman on March 4. Vargas, 27, is a big underdog in the fight, but he’s ready to try his best to unseat Garcia in front of the fans on Premier Boxing Champions on Spike in their fight in Philadelphia.
(Photo credit: Ryan Hafey/Premier Boxing Champions)
“I got something for him,” said Garcia to the boxing media about his fight against Thurman next March.
Garcia is trying not to think too much about the Thurman fight right now, because he still has to deal with Vargas on Saturday night first. If Garcia takes his foot off the pedal for the Vargas fight, he could wind up losing to him, and that would be a real disaster.
What’s not good about Garcia’s situation for this Saturday’s fight is the long period of inactivity that he’s had. Garcia hasn’t fought since last January after beating Robert Guerrero by a 12 round unanimous decision to win the vacant World Boxing Council belt. Why Garcia’s manager Al Haymon didn’t get him back into the ring until now is the magical question.
Did Haymon not have any fight dates for him or was this something that Garcia wanted? It’s not a good deal for Garcia if he’s only going to be fighting twice per year with neither of the fights being big deals. That’s a waste of a career.
“I know people are excited about the Thurman fight,” said Garcia. “I understand that and I’m going to be pumped up for that one too. But I’m not looking past anybody. I’m fully focused on putting on a show at home and doing what I have to do to beat Vargas.”
Garcia is going to have the fans rooting for him in this fight because he’ll be fighting in front of his own hometown. He probably won’t need the boxing fans on his side to get the results he’s looking for. Vargas is over-matched in this fight, and doesn’t rate a title fight.
Some fans have been labeling Vargas as another Rod Salka type of opponent. I hope that’s not the case for Garcia’s sake, because he took a lot of heat from the fans for his 2nd round wipeout of lightweight Salka in 2014. Garcia pulled Salka all the way up to welterweight for that fight at a catch-weight of 141.bs.