Danny Garcia Definitely Holding Out for Mayweather or Pacquiao

Danny Garcia Definitely Holding Out – It’s been recently leaked that WBC welterweight title holder Danny Garcia 32-0 (18) may fight former IBF title holder Andre Berto 31-4 (24) this coming September. Both Garcia and Berto are coming off solid wins – Garcia having defeated former Berto conquer Roberto Guerrero to win the vacant WBC title, and Berto having exacted revenge over Victor Ortiz via a fourth round stoppage five years after losing a unanimous decision to him.

The thought of a possible Garcia-Berto clash doesn’t seem to be going over that well with boxing fans. And the reason for that is that almost everyone feels it’s a foregone conclusion that Garcia will win – an opinion which I also endorse. Actually, I don’t think it would be a difficult fight for Danny. Berto isn’t very mobile and is easy to hit. He’s not a big puncher and when all is said and done, if Garcia is in shape and has an interest in the result, he’d out-tough Berto and eventually break him down both physically and mentally.

The thing that’s becoming abundantly clear about Danny Garcia is the way he’s managing his career and choosing opponents. It’s nearly impossible to miss the influence of Floyd Mayweather. Apparently Garcia paid close attention to the way Floyd conducted his business outside of the ring. Danny grasped that Floyd, along with Bernard Hopkins, were the first great fighters to exploit the boxing establishment instead of being used up and run over by it. Certainly there have been greater fighters than both Mayweather and Hopkins, but how many of them actually retired with their health, wealth and respect the way Floyd and Bernard did or will? The list is very short.

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Danny Garcia Definitely Holding Out

The Mayweather playbook for exploiting the system is pretty simplistic. And it goes something like this – remain undefeated at the world class championship level and fight the biggest names when the risk of losing is the lowest and the purse is the highest. It’s not a coincidence that more and more boxing fans are starting to ask when Garcia is going to step up and stop fighting smaller fighters or name guys on the decline. I believe that’s what we heard for the last 11 or 12 years of Mayweather’s stellar career. Yet he fought on, taking fights that offered the least risk. Seldom were they drama filled nor was the result ever in doubt, but fans continued to shell out their money to watch them. Floyd never changed the script and got over for the last eight years of his career banking millions of dollars engaging in bouts that were money in the bank regarding the result. Why on earth would he change something that was working beautifully? He wouldn’t and he didn’t.

Without a doubt Danny Garcia is a fearless fighter and a legitimate tough guy. However, he’s equally as smart as he is tough. Danny fully grasps that a fighter’s time at the top is usually short lived. He also knows fans love to see great fights between the best fighters in each weight division, but the cost of giving them those fights results in a shortened career and fewer paydays. There’s a lot to be said about fighters who take risk and fight every bad ass on the block. We salute them and give them major applause when we see them or when they’re sitting ringside. But other than that, fans usually don’t care about how they’re doing regarding their health and finances. Of course when they hear their favorite fighters have fallen on hard times they feel bad for them, but what good does that do the retired fighters?

Floyd Mayweather mapped out the path on how to extend your career and maximize your earning potential at the upper-tier level in professional boxing where titles are involved, and Danny Garcia took good notes and is now trying to chart a course resembling Floyd’s. Garcia probably knows he can never truly adopt his inner Mayweather because he’s not the marketer that Floyd was and isn’t as comfortable being the bad guy, something Mayweather was comfortable with. However, he realizes, as did Mayweather, that being undefeated is a great marketing tool. One that shouldn’t be squandered for the sake of gaining favor with the fans – the same ones who will abandon you the second you’re no longer undefeated. They won’t care that you lost to another killer, they’ll just know that you’re not all that great  anymore because you’ve been beaten.

Garcia is picking his spots because he knows the “0” on the right side of his record really is worth millions. Danny doesn’t fear Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Terence Crawford or anyone else. In his perfect world Mayweather UN-retires and challenges him. I can just hear Mayweather saying….”I only fight the best. Danny Garcia is undefeated just like me. Again, I only give the fans what they want.” Garcia knows Mayweather is a terrible match-up for him stylistically, but that’s okay because he’ll sell the “0” for the type money he’d get fighting Mayweather. And that applies to him fighting Manny Pacquiao just the same.

Don’t look for Garcia to fight anyone who is a true threat to him until he’s 100% certain that there’s no chance of him getting a fight with either Mayweather or Pacquiao. He knows the “0” is the ultimate leverage in securing a big fight and he’s not going to chance it on Keith Thurman or Terence Crawford until their 0’s are worth enough to make fighting them a financial blockbuster.

Frank Lotierzo can be contacted at GlovedFist@Gmail.com

Danny Garcia Definitely Holding Out