“It feels great. For the first time in a long time, I could worry about training to get better and not training to lose weight,” stated undefeated jr. welterweight champion Danny Garcia, who talked about his upcoming August 1 clash with two-division former world champion Paulie Malignaggi. Although Garcia will officially be making his debut in the welterweight division, it won’t be his first fight above the 140-pound jr. welterweight limit, having fought Lamont Peterson at a catchweight of 143 pounds in his last bout. Nevertheless, Garcia explains that the move up in weight was long overdue and he’s confident that it will have a positive impact on his performances.
“I’ve been fighting at 140 my whole career. I just felt like losing the weight was affecting my performances, mostly in the later rounds of big fights because I will use a lot of my energy losing weight,” Garcia explained. “I’ve been feeling a lot stronger and a lot better at 147. I think I should have been moved up maybe after the Mattysse fight. But I’m here now and I feel good. I feel strong. I’m training hard. And we’re working on new things just to get faster and stronger at 147.”
