Garcia-Matthysse Will “Turn Into A War”

Golden Boy matchmaker Robert Diaz hasn't been shy about telling some of his pals who are merely casual boxing fans that they'd be fool just to tune in for the main event on Saturday night. Wouldn't be wise, Diaz tells them, not with the Danny Garcia-Lucas Matthysse scrap underneath the main event.

Diaz has seen some oddsmakers installing the Argentine as a 3-to-1 favorite and he cautioned me on a Thurday phoner that the oddsmakers by no means always get it right. “They make mistakes sometimes,” he told me. “They don't know how Danny was brought up, how he was the underdog in most of his fights. Danny wasn't built up like the majority of fighters, he's been in very tough. I don't remember him or his dad ever turning a fight down. He's got a lot of talent, and belief in himself.”

But…

His best wins have come over past their prime stars, Erik Morales twice and Zab Judah, and that KO of Amir Khan was a “lucky punch,” his detractors sometimes argue. A win for the 25-year-old Philly fighter, Diaz said, would dispel all doubts, and move the 26-0 Garcia into a new category. “A win for Garcia would move him from being a world champ, to a superstar,” Diaz said. The same goes for the 30-year-old Matthysse (34-2), he thinks, because the stage will be so immense, and so many eyes will be trained on this faceoff.

“This one could steal the show, be the fight of the night,” he said. “It'll turn into a war.”

I think Garcia could try and enter with a gameplan of employing smart boxing and mobility for 12 rounds to work to hold on to his 140 pound crowns. Diaz agrees, but says that once one or the other really lands, all bets could be off, a tradefest could break out. “It's a 50-50 fight but I believe 100% someone is getting knocked out,” he told me. Smartly, with a political deftness, he wouldn't guess which man will take the ten count. Readers, who do you like in the Danny Garcia-Lucas Matthysse clash?

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