Via Dan Ambrose: Coach Angel Garcia denies that diminutive Danny Garcia isn’t big enough for the 154-lb class, and he believes he’ll shine against career heavyweight Jose Benavidez Jr this Saturday night on Showtime at the Barkley Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Angel points out that Danny 5’8″, which he claims is actually 5’9″, will rehydrate 160 lbs. What goes without saying is that the top boxers at 154, like Jermell Charlo 6’0 ″, rehydrated for the 170s, and are taller, taller, and heavier than Danny.
Picking heavyweight Jose Benavidez Jr for Danny to play on his debut at 154 was a no-brainer. It will give the casual boxing fan a wrong picture of Garcia’s potential in the base average weight class. It’s similar to when Danny fights small Rod Salka in his debut in the weight division in 2014.
Instead of Danny fighting an actual 147-pound man, he was fighting a 13-pound man, as Salka was a featherweight superweight pulled up to be his opponent in his welterweight debut. As you would imagine, Danny looked spectacular in his first fight at 147, knocking out Salka in two innings.
The payers at the time didn’t realize that Danny was up against a much smaller boxer with no fighting experience at 147.
On Saturday, we’ll see the same thing when Danny plays against a welterweight instead of a young middleweight in his debut at 154, and it’s pathetic.
“It’s not really rusty. We fought. It does not rust; we got into a fight in the gym,” said Angel Garcia Against TV Hub when informed that Danny Garcia had rusted from two years of inactivity since his last fight in 2020. “We don’t rust. It’s just that we’re not in the rusty limelight.
“We fought. It’s not like Danny forgot to throw a damn jab. Those who say that are people who have never fought. You never forget how to ride a bike.
“It will be a great fight,” Angel said when asked if Danny Garcia would want to fight Errol Spence again if the opportunity presented itself to him. “No, 154. We will never back down again [to 147] when. Why vice versa?
“We are not going backwards. Look, we should have been 154 years ago because we were offered to play Cotto when he retired. I should have done that.
“There are two things that I regret not playing against Cotto in game 154, and I regret not playing Peterson. We fought him in the hot weight when Peterson was the IBF champion. Danny will be the unified IBF, WBA, WBC and Ring Magazine champion at age 40.
“Those who say that [Garcia is too small for 154]. When Danny won at the age of 140, they said he was picking cherries. He doesn’t fight killers. Does it matter what they say? He is not a smaller person.
“He’s 5’9″, and on the night of the fight, he’ll probably weigh 160 lbs. He’ll be middleweight on Saturday night, so what’s small about him? The guy was just over a hand tall. What is it?” Angel said of Jose Benavidez 5’10, who looked bigger than Danny when the two met at their final press conference on Thursday.
“It’s not like the 6’1 Mexican kid.” Now, it’s high. He just came with the will to win,” Angel said of Benavidez Jr.“ The Latino in him.
“Mexican blood in him. That’s what’s to come on Saturday night, but we’re ready for all of that because we’ve been here before. It doesn’t look like something new. We’ve seen people like him before. It’s not that we haven’t seen people like him.
“It is nothing new for us. We just need to focus and stick to our game plan, and Danny will succeed. The thing is, he can [Benavidez Jr] shoot because Danny will return them.
“He may get some, but we will give them back. We will return it. We are returning it. We will not just take. We are giving,” Angel said.
