The low point of Showtime?s 2014 boxing programming was an Al Haymon creature feature showcasing junior welterweights Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson. Not against each other, mind you; no, such a fight would have asked too much of Haymon, who spent last year plotting the future by spoiling the present. Instead, Garcia and Peterson iced a pair of fall guys in mismatches so shameful they elicited uncomfortable chuckles. Garcia?s opponent in particular, Rod Salka, a run-of-the-mill lightweight, was disgracefully, almost criminally, led to slaughter.
The supposed rationale behind this double-headed monster was that it built toward a Garcia-Peterson fight later in the year?or later?or not at all. Under siege on social media for green-lighting the farce, Showtime Executive Stephen Espinoza defended the decision by saying that sometimes a network has to buy two fights to get the one it wants. For all its absurdity, this statement at least reveals the nature of Haymon?s relationship with Showtime (a relationship that has remained grossly one-sided well into this year).
Espinoza finally gets the fight he put a down payment on, however, when Garcia and Peterson meet at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, on Saturday night. The kicker: Garcia-Peterson airs not on Showtime, but on NBC as part of the Premier Boxing Champions series.
Garcia-Peterson is an interesting fight, though not so interesting that it justifies the setup. Nor is there some kind of mandate for this fight simply because Showtime bought the disgraceful audition. Garcia-Peterson pits a fighter who tamed Lucas Matthysse against a fighter ravaged by him. That does not mean that Peterson is doomed: there are reasons to think he can succeed against Garcia in ways Matthysse did not. Still, enthusiasm for this fight is generated in part by lowered expectations?expectations that Haymon is largely, purposefully responsible for. Having teased the public with the possibility of Garcia-Peterson?a good fight, but an excellent one in the context of last year?Haymon may be banking on the recovering public celebrating the matchup and the brand delivering it.
Few fighters have lowered expectations like Garcia. After demystifying Matthysse in 2013, Garcia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, took a ?homecoming? fight in Puerto Rico against light-punching Mauricio Herrera and was more than lucky to escape with the decision. One imagines a few searching glances in the mirror thereafter assured Garcia that beheading Salka was just the palliative he needed, and being allowed to come in at 142lbs only sweetened the deal. The junior welterweight limit is again being stretched for Garcia, 29-0 (17), who meets Peterson at 143 pounds.
The privileged treatment Garcia receives is puzzling. Never particularly popular, Garcia nevertheless proved himself in shivering Amir Khan and domesticating Matthysse, and by the time he had accomplished the latter, he seemed poised for a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Yet Garcia, 27, discouraged any such talk, while making cryptic comments about longevity. True, a fighter can sustain for some time on bogus decisions and sanctioned squash jobs. That course of action however, has villainized Garcia.
For now, Garcia and Peterson have only each other to consider; and the possibility that, with the hierarchy of networks at Haymon?s disposal, a loss could carry real, financial, consequences. So what should transpire when Espinoza is finally rewarded for the worst card of 2014? Again, Matthysse serves as a point of reference. For all his ferocity, Matthysse struggled to make Garcia take a backward step. When Matthysse unloaded, so did Garcia, again and again, until Matthysse experienced a spark of doubt and ?La Machina? was made human. A natural counterpuncher, one with the nerve to trust his strategy in a zero sum game, Garcia fought Matthysse at range, and dared keep him there. Meanwhile Peterson, 31, perhaps made tentative by Matthysse?s reputation, never fully committed to getting inside on the Argentine and survived less than three rounds.
That timidity doomed Peterson, born in Washington, D.C., but now living in Memphis, Tennessee, because he works best in close, churning his knuckles into whatever he can find. With that approach, Peterson gave Tim Bradley, Amir Khan, and the not yet fully-cracked version of Victor Ortiz all they could handle in a loss, win, and draw, respectively. And while there is reason to question whether Peterson has been clean throughout his career?his rematch with Khan evaporated when Peterson failed a drug test?his blue collar charms and incredible backstory have helped sweep suspicion under the rug.
Garcia hits with authority, has exceptional timing, takes a better shot, and should be fresher in his newest, custom weight class, but he is nowhere near the infighter Peterson is. Herrera worked Garcia over with little more than a educated jab, grit, and determination. Peterson, 33-2-1 (17), has two of the three, and more power. While he runs the risk of being countered as he closes, and to that end needs to vary his jab and keep his upper-body moving, Peterson should have his way on the inside. A notoriously slow starter, Peterson cannot give away rounds because attrition is his game and because Garcia?s punches are flashier and easier to appreciate. Moreover, despite being a Haymon client, Peterson is not the house fighter?he rarely is in his biggest fights, which he just as rarely wins. But he is no farce, neither is Garcia, and neither is this fight.
