Danny Garcia Finding Out Winning Isn’t Always Enough

Published

9 years ago

July 28, 2015

There are several ways of determining when a particular fighter is hot, and when he’s not. One of those ways is whether the fighter in question is calling someone else out, or someone is calling him out.

If you’re the one petitioning to be granted a shot at someone better-known and more of a box-office draw, you’re probably not as toasty as you’d prefer to be. But if other highly regarded fighters are pleading for you to give them a chance to mix it up for glory and riches, you’re certifiably sizzling. In boxing, the targeted few are almost always hotter commodities than the glut of hunters seeking to turn them into trophy conquests.

By that admittedly imprecise rule of thumb, now-former super lightweight champion Danny “Swift” Garcia, whose career hardly has been refrigerated, has at least cooled to something akin to room temperature. The 27-year-old Philadelphian of Puerto Rican descent is 30-0, with 17 victories inside the distance, but even when he was widely considered the best 140-pound fighter on the planet, Garcia never awed opponents and the public to the same degree as, say, a Gennady Golovkin or a Sergey Kovalev. Good on many fronts but not commandingly spectacular in any one area, he always has been cloaked in a cape of perceived vulnerability.

Now, after three bouts in which he failed to build upon the momentum created by his watershed unanimous decision over Argentine power-puncher Lucas Matthysse on Sept. 14, 2013, Garcia is hoping a move up to welterweight and an impressive performance against veteran two-division former champ Paulie Malignaggi (33-6, 7 KOs) will reestablish him as a fighter who not that long ago seemed to be on the periphery of legitimate stardom.

Garcia-Malignaggi is the scheduled 12-round main event of Saturday night’s “Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN,” at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., the co-feature of which has WBA middleweight champ Daniel Jacobs (29-1, 26 KOs) defending against former WBC super welter titlist Sergio Mora (28-3-2, 9 KOs).

It is somewhat telling that Garcia, who sees himself as a pay-per-view attraction, is making his 147-pound debut on basic cable against the 34-year-old Malignaggi, who hasn’t fought since he was knocked out in four rounds by then-IBF welterweight ruler Shawn Porter on April 19 of last year. Although the clever, soft-punching Malignaggi hasn’t stowed away his own dreams as an active fighter, it would not have surprised anyone had he the winner of the 2013 Boxing Writers Association of America’s Sam Taub Award for excellence in broadcast journalism (as a color analyst for Showtime) decided to concentrate full-time on his duties at ringside instead of those inside the ropes.

Also telling is the fact that Garcia, one of the nearly 200 fighters under contract to the mysterious and powerful Al Haymon, seemingly has been designated as something less than one of Haymon’s top priorities. Even if Garcia pummels Malignaggi into submission – not an easy thing to do, given Paulie’s history as a punishment-evasive technician – it isn’t likely to be the kind of exclamation-point triumph that his wins, as an underdog, over Matthysse and Amir Khan (fourth-round TKO on July 14, 2012) were.

No wonder Garcia is publicly wishing to move to the front of the line for high-visibility bouts against Floyd Mayweather Jr. (48-0, 26 KOs) and Manny Pacquiao (57-6-2, 38 KOs) before those aging but still highly bankable stars decide to hang up their gloves.

“As far as those guys, I don’t know,” Garcia said of his apparently slim chances of snagging a coveted date against May or Pac. “They say this (Sept. 2 against the ever-popular opponent to be named) is Mayweather’s last fight, and Pacquiao’s made a lot of money so I really can’t say what he plans to do. (The Filipino also is promoted by Bob Arum, who has filed a $100 million lawsuit against Haymon.) But welterweight is a stacked division, and I feel my style matches up good with any of those guys. I’m ready to take on anybody.”

Perhaps most significant, Garcia has won an internal battle that has done in more than a few fighters who made the mistake of lingering too long at a no-longer-feasible weight.

“To be honest, I felt like my 140 days were over after I beat Matthysse,” Garcia said at his gym in the gritty Juniata Park section of Philadelphia. “After that fight, it felt like that was all I had left. It really affected me when I had to make weight after that. I was just training to take the pounds off. I wasn’t training to get better.

“Making me fight at 140 was forcing me to fight only one way, and that was to just come forward. My body wasn’t feeling strong enough to be more athletic or to do anything else. Really, I should have moved up to 147 two years ago. But the time is now and I’m feeling strong again, like I did when I fought Matthysse and Khan. After (Matthysse), I didn’t feel strong anymore. I didn’t have a lot of snap on my punches.”

Garcia estimated he performed at “about 65 or 70 percent” of peak efficiency for his three post-Matthysse fights – a disputed majority decision over Mauricio Herrera in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, in which Garcia retained his WBC and WBA titles; a two-round, non-title blowout of an obviously overmatched Rod Salka, and another disputed majority decision, over IBF champion Lamont Peterson, with neither man’s belt was on the line with a contracted catch weight of 143 pounds.

“I did lose some momentum in my last three fights,” conceded Garcia, whose girlfriend is expected to deliver the couple’s first child, a daughter, on Aug. 11. “But I’m a young fighter. I had a layoff of eight months (between the Salka and Peterson bouts), and those long layoffs, and having to keep coming down to 140, hurt me so much. Still, I think I benefited in some ways. If you don’t have tough fights, you’re not going to learn. You can’t get better if you’re just walking through everybody, so how can you know what you got to work on?

“The way I look at it, everything that’s happened in my career is a learning experience. Now I know my weaknesses, what I have to work on in the gym. I’m looking at those last three fights as a blessing in disguise.”

So, too, in his own way is Malignaggi, who sees Garcia as his best opportunity to regain some of his receded relevance. Paulie was to have taken on Danny O’Connor (26-2, 10 KOs) on May 29, but he was cut over the eye in training camp and the bout was canceled. Not long after that, he was approached about the possibility of getting it on with Garcia, an offer he was quick to accept.

“I really didn’t think I was going to come back,” he said. “But I’m a competitor. I’m all about competing against the best. This is an opportunity for me to kind of put myself back in the mix with one really good performance as opposed to slowly getting back over the course of three, four fights.

“I’m 34, not 24. I don’t really have that kind of patience anymore. This fight just fell into my lap. It was unexpected. But, really, it was something I couldn’t say no to.”

Even with the presumed drawbacks – Garcia in a bit of a mini-slump, Malignaggi holding off retirement just a bit longer – the pairing isn’t without its elements of intrigue. Both Garcia and Malignaggi appeared on the first boxing card ever staged at the Barclays Center, on Oct. 20, 2012. Garcia defended his WBC and WBA titles on a fourth-round knockout of future Hall of Famer Erik Morales while Malignaggi retained his WBA welter strap on a split decision over Pablo Cesar Cano. But that’s not all: Each believes the Barclays Center to be friendly home territory, with Garcia making his fifth appearance there and Brooklyn native Malignaggi his fourth.

“New York has a lot of people who can relate to me,” Garcia said. “They’re Puerto Rican, but they were born and raised in New York. They love and respect me because I’m cut from the same cloth.”

Angel Garcia, Danny’s always-loquacious father-trainer, figures crowd support will be split right down the middle.

“Malignaggi has a big, big fan base there,” he said. “There are a lot of Italians in New York, as well as a lot of Puerto Ricans. Everybody’s going to be for somebody in this fight, which is good for the sport, and good for the fans.”

Not that Angel believes the pro-Malignaggi contingent will go home happy. He said his son has trained hard at cutting off Malignaggi’s escape routes, and now that he’s no longer starving himself to pare down to 140, the improvement will be immediately evident.

“We know what Malignaggi’s going to try to do,” the father said. “Everybody wants to run from Danny. They think that’s his weak spot. They think that boxing him is the way to beat him. But guess what? He’s still undefeated.

“I’m not going to underestimate or take nothin’ from Malignaggi. He’s been around a long time. But he’s a runner, and at the end of the fight Danny’s hand is going to be raised again.”

Danny Garcia said it’s “very important” not only to have his hand raised, but to make the kind of definitive statement he didn’t – couldn’t — make in his last three fights.

“There are a lot of fighters who have hot streaks and blow past everybody, but then they lose a little momentum and they can’t seem to get it back,” he said. “My last three fights, I proved I can still win without a lot of momentum. Yeah, Danny Garcia had an off-night here and there, but he still won. That’s what separates a good fighter from a great fighter.

“Now I’m active again, I’m strong again, and I feel like my best performances are ahead of me. You’ll see. It’s going to be a great night.”

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Bernard Fernandez

Avila Perspective, Chap. 282: Ryan’s Song, Golden Boy in Fresno and More

Published

5 hours ago

April 26, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila-Perspective-Chap-282-Ryan's-Song-Golden-Boy-in-Fresno-and-More

Don’t call it an upset.

Days after Ryan Garcia proved the experts wrong, those same experts are re-tooling their evaluation processes.

It’s mind-boggling to me that 95 percent thought Garcia had no chance. Hear me out.

First, Garcia and Haney fought six times as amateurs with each winning three. But this time with no head gear and smaller gloves, Garcia had to have at least a 50/50 chance of winning. He is faster and a more powerful puncher.

Facts.

Haney is a wonderful boxer with smooth, almost artistic movements. But history has taught us power and speed like Garcia’s can’t be discounted. Think way back to legendary fighters like Willie Pep and Sandy Sadler. All that excellent defensive skill could not prevent Sadler from beating Pep in three of their four meetings.

Power has always been an equalizer against boxing skill.

Ben Lira, one of the wisest and most experienced trainers in Southern California, always professed knockout power was the greatest equalizer in a fight. “You can be behind for nine rounds and one punch can change the outcome,” he said.

Another weird theory spreading before the fight was that Garcia would quit in the fight. That was a puzzling one. Getting stopped by a perfect body shot is not quitting. And that punch came from Gervonta “Tank” Davis who can really crack.

So how did Garcia do it?

In the opening round Ryan Garcia timed Devin Haney’s jab and countered with a snapping left hook that rattled and wobbled the super lightweight champion. After that, Garcia forced Haney to find another game plan.

Garcia and trainer Derrick James must have worked hours on that move.

I must confess that I first saw Garcia’s ability many years ago when he was around 11 or 12. So I do have an advantage regarding his talent. A few things I noticed even back then were his speed and power. Also, that others resented his talent but respected him. He was the guy with everything: talent and looks.

And that brings resentment.

Recently I saw him and his crew rapping a song on social media. Now he’s got a song. Next thing you know Hollywood will be calling and he’ll be in the movies. It’s happened before with fighters such as Art Aragon, the first Golden Boy in the 50s. He was dating movie stars and getting involved with starlets all over Hollywood.

Is history repeating itself or is Garcia creating a new era for boxing?

Since 2016 people claimed he was just a social media creation. Now, after his win over Devin Haney a former undisputed lightweight champion and the WBC super lightweight titleholder, the boxer from the high desert area of Victorville has become one of the highest paid fighters in the world.

Ryan Garcia has entered a new dimension.

Golden Boy Season

After several down years the Los Angeles-based company Golden Boy Promotions suddenly is cracking the whip in 2024.

Avila

Vergil Ortiz Jr. (20-0, 20 KOs) returns to the ring and faces Puerto Rico’s Thomas Dulorme (26-6-1, 17 KOs) a welterweight gatekeeper who lost to Jaron “Boots” Ennis and Eimantas Stanionis. They meet as super welterweights in the co-main event at Save Mart Arena in Fresno, Calif. on Saturday, April 27. DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotions card live.

It’s a quick return to action for Ortiz who is still adjusting to the new weight division. His last fight three months ago ended in less than one round in Las Vegas. It was cut short by an antsy referee and left Ortiz wanting more after more than a year of inactivity in the prize ring.

Ortiz has all the weapons.

Also, Northern California’s Jose Carlos Ramirez (28-1, 18 KOs) meets Cuba’s Rances Barthelemy (30-2-1, 15 KOs) in a welterweight affair set for 12 rounds.

It’s difficult to believe that former super lightweight titlist Ramirez has been written off by fans after only one loss. That was several years ago against Scotland’s Josh Taylor. One loss does not mean the end of a career.

“My goal is to get back on top and to get all those belts back. I still feel like I am one of the best 140-pounders in the division,” said Ramirez who lives in nearby Avenal, Calif.

An added major attraction features Marlen Esparza in a unification rematch against Gabriela “La Chucky” Alaniz for the WBA, WBC, WBO flyweight titles. Their first fight was

a controversial win by Esparza that saw one judge give her nine of 10 rounds in a very close fight. Those Texas judges.

In a match that could steal the show, Oscar Duarte (26-2-1, 21 KOs) faces former world champion Jojo Diaz (33-5-1, 15 KOs) in a lightweight match.

Munguia and Canelo

Don’t sleep on this match.

Its current Golden Boy fighter Jaime Munguia facing former Golden Boy fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in a battle between Mexico’s greatest sluggers next week at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on May 4.

“I think Jaime Munguia is going to do something special in the ring,” said Oscar De La Hoya, the CEO for Golden Boy.

Tijuana’s Munguia showed up at the Wild Card Boxing gym in Hollywood where a throng of media from Mexico and the US met him.

Munguia looked confident and happy about his opportunity to fight great Canelo.

“It’s a hard fight,” said Munguia. “Truth is, its big for Mexico and not only for Mexicans but for boxing.”

Fights to Watch

Fri. DAZN 6 p.m. Yoeniz Tellez (7-0) vs Joseph Jackson (19-0).

Sat. DAZN 9:30 a.m. Peter McGrail (8-1) vs Marc Leach (18-3-1); Beatriz Ferreira (4-0) vs Yanina Del Carmen 14-3).

Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. Vergil Ortiz (20-0) vs Thomas Dulorme (26-6-1); Jose Carlos Ramirez (28-1) vs Rances Barthelemy (30-2-1); Marlen Esparza (14-1) vs Gabriela Alaniz (14-1).

Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy Promotions

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Ramon Cardenas Channels Micky Ward and KOs Eduardo Ramirez on ProBox

Published

2 days ago

April 24, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Ramon-Cardenas-Channels-Micky-Ward-and-KOs-Eduardo-Ramirez-on-ProBox

The Wednesday night bi-monthly series of fights on the ProBox TV platform is the best deal in boxing; the livestream is free with no strings attached! Tonight’s episode was headlined by a super bantamweight match between San Antonio’s Ramon Cardenas and Eduardo Ramirez who brought a caravan of rooters from his hometown in Guaymas, Sonora, Mexico.

Cardenas, coached by Joel Diaz, entered the contest ranked #4 by the WBA. He was expected to handle Ramirez with little difficulty, but this was a close, tactical fight through eight frames when lightning struck in the form of a left hook to the liver from Cardenas. Ramirez went down on one knee and wasn’t able to beat the count. It was as if Cardenas summoned the ghost of Micky Ward who had a penchant for terminating fights with the same punch that arrived out of the blue.

The official time was 1:37 of round nine. Cardenas improved to 25-1 with his14th win inside the distance. Ramirez, who was stopped in the opening round by Nick “Wrecking” Ball in London in his lone previous fight outside Mexico, falls to 23-3-3.

Co-Feature

In an upset, Tijuana super welterweight Damian Sosa won a split decision over previously undefeated Marques Valle, a local area fighter who was stepping up in class in his first 10-round go. Sosa was the aggressor, repeatedly backing his taller opponent into the ropes where Valle was unable to get good leverage behind his punches.

The 25-year-old Valle, managed by the influential David McWater, was the house fighter. This was his 10^th appearance in this building. He brought a 10-0 (7) record and was hoping to emulate the success of his younger brother Dominic Valle who scored a second-round stoppage of his opponent in this ring two weeks ago, improving to 9-0. But Sosa, who brought a 24-2 record, proved to be a bridge too high.

The judges had it 97-93 and 96-94 for the Tijuana invader and a disgraceful 98-92 for the house fighter.

Also

In a fight whose abrupt ending would be echoed by the main event, 34-year-old SoCal featherweight Ronny Rios, now training in Las Vegas, returned to the ring after a 22-month hiatus and scored a fifth-round stoppage over Nicolas Polanco of the Dominican Republic.

A three-punch combo climaxed by a left hook to the liver took the breath out of Polanco who slumped to his knees and was counted out. A two-time world title challenger, Rios advanced to 34-4 (17 KOs). Polanco, 34, declined to 21-6-1. The official time was 0:54 of round five.

—

The next ProBox show (Wednesday, May 8) will have an international cast with fighters from Kazakhstan, Japan, Mongolia, and the United Kingdom. In the main event, Liverpool’s Robbie Davies Jr will make his U.S. debut against the California-based Kazakh Sergey Lipinets.

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Haney-Garcia Redux with the Focus on Harvey Dock

Published

4 days ago

April 22, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Haney-Garcia-Redux-with-the-Focus-on-Harvey-Dock

Saturday’s skirmish between Ryan Garcia and WBC super lightweight champion Devin Haney was a messy affair, and yet a hugely entertaining fight fused with great drama. In the aftermath, Garcia and Haney were celebrated – the former for fooling all the experts and the latter for his gallant performance in a losing effort – but there were only brickbats for the third man in the ring, referee Harvey Dock.

Devin Haney was plainly ahead heading into the seventh frame when there was a sudden turnabout when Garcia put him on the canvas with his vaunted left hook. Moments later, Dock deducted a point from Garcia for a late punch coming out of a break. The deduction forced a temporary cease-fire that gave Haney a few precious seconds to regain his faculties. Before the round was over, Haney was on the deck twice more but these were ruled slips.

The deduction, which effectively negated the knockdown, struck many as too heavy-handed as Dock hadn’t previously issued a warning for this infraction. Moreover, many thought he could have taken a point away from Haney for excessive clinching. As for Haney’s second and third trips to the canvas in round seven, they struck this reporter – watching at home – as borderline, sufficient to give referee Dock the benefit of the doubt.

In a post-fight interview, Ryan Garcia faulted the referee for denying him the satisfaction of a TKO. “At the end of the day, Harvey Dock, I think he was tripping,” said Garcia. “He could have stopped that fight.”

Those that played the rounds proposition, placing their coin on the “under,” undoubtedly felt the same way.

The internet lit up with comments assailing Dock’s competence and/or his character. Some of the ponderings were whimsical, but they were swamped by the scurrilous screeching of dolts who find a conspiracy under every rock.

Stephen A. Smith, reputedly America’s highest-paid TV sports personality, was among those that felt a need to weigh-in: “This referee is absolutely terrible….Unreal! Horrible officiating,” tweeted Stephen A whose primary area of expertise is basketball.

Harvey Dock

Dock fought as an amateur and had one professional fight, winning a four-round decision over a fellow novice on a show at a non-gaming resort in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. He says that as an amateur he was merely average, but he was better than that, a New Jersey and regional amateur champion in 1993 and 1994 while a student New Jersey’s Essex County Community College where he majored in journalism.

A passionate fan of Sugar Ray Leonard, he started officiating amateur fights in 1998 and six years later, at age 32, had his first documented action at the professional level, working low-level cards in New Jersey. The top boxing referees, to a far greater extent than the top judges, had long apprenticeships, having worked their way up from the boonies and Dock is no exception.

Per boxrec, Haney vs Garcia was Harvey Dock’s 364^th assignment in the pros and his forty-second world title fight. Some of those title fights were title in name only, they weren’t even main events, but, bit by bit, more lucrative offerings started coming his way.

On May 13, 2023, Dock worked his first fights in Nevada, a 4-rounder and then a 12-rounder on a card at the Cosmopolitan topped by the 140-pound title fight between Rolly Romero and Ismael Barroso. It was the first time that this reporter got to watch Dock in the flesh.

Ironically (in hindsight), the card would be remembered for the actions of a referee, in this case Tony Weeks who handled the main event. Barroso was winning the fight on all three cards when Weeks stepped in and waived it off in the ninth round after Romero cornered Barroso against the ropes and let loose a barrage of punches, none of which landed cleanly. Few “premature stoppages” were ever as garishly, nay ghoulishly, premature.

With all the brickbats raining down on Weeks, I felt a need to tamp down the noise by diverting attention away from Tony Weeks and toward Harvey Dock and took to the TSS Forum to share my thoughts. Referencing the 12-rounder, a robust junior welterweight affair between Batyr Akhmedov and Kenneth Sims Jr, I noted that Dock’s Las Vegas debut went smoothly. He glided effortlessly around the ring, making him inconspicuous, the mark of a good referee. (This post ran on May 15, two days after the fight.)

Folks at the Nevada State Athletic Commission were also paying attention. Dock was back in Las Vegas the following week to referee the lightweight title fight between Devin Haney and Vasyl Lomachenko and before the year was out, he would be tabbed to referee the biggest non-heavyweight fight of the year, the July 29 match in Las Vegas between Terence Crawford and Errol Spence Jr.

The Haney-Garcia fight wasn’t Harvey Dock’s best hour, I’ll concede that, but a closer look at his full body of work informs us that he is an outstanding referee.

—

While the Haney-Garcia bout was in progress, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman threw everyone a curve ball, tweeting on “X” that Devin Haney would keep his title if he lost the fight. Everyone, including the TV commentators, was under the impression that the title would become vacant in the event that Haney lost.

Sulaiman cited the precedent of Corrales-Castillo II.

FYI: The Corrales-Castillo rematch, originally scheduled for June 3, 2005 and aborted on the day prior when Castillo failed to make weight, finally came off on Oct. 8 of that year, notwithstanding the fact that Castillo failed to make weight once again, scaling three-and-a-half pounds above the lightweight limit. He knocked out Corrales in the fourth round with a left hook that Las Vegas Review-Journal boxing writer Kevin Iole, alluding to the movie “Blazing Saddles,” described as Mongo-esque (translation: the punch would have knocked out a horse). After initially insisting on a rubber match, which had scant chance of happening, WBC president Jose Sulaiman, Mauricio’s late father, ruled that Corrales could keep his title.

Whether or not you agree with Mauricio Sulaiman’s rationale, the timing of his announcement was certainly awkward.

Haney’s mandatory is Spanish southpaw Sandor Martin (42-3, 15 KOs), a cutie best known for his 2021 upset of Mikey Garcia. A bout between Haney and Martin has the earmarks of a dull fight.

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