In beating (and hopefully retiring) Paulie Malignaggi last Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Danny Garcia did the absolute bare minimum expected of him. And these days, much to the frustration of fight fans, ” the bare minimum” is what can be expected from the Philadelphia native.
But for the grace of horrid judging, favorable matchmaking, and opponent gafs, the self-labeled “Phillyrican” would be anywhere from 2-2 to 0-4 in his last four bouts and on the road back to mid-card status.
Just a little over two years ago, however, Garcia was basking in praise and flirting with bouts against welterweight big-timers Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. The then-25-year-old was riding high on the waves of public acclaim and starting to enter into pound-for-pound discussions.
A disciplined, skill-heavy victory over heavy-handed KO artist Lucas Matthysse on the Floyd Mayweather-Saul Alvarez undercard established Garcia as the undisputed king of the junior welterweight division. It was a no-brainer that he’d have his shot at becoming one of the sport’s true elite and a better-than-even-odds bet that he’d find a way to stay among the elite.
And then the wheels suddenly fell off the Garcia bandwagon.
Per The Boxing Tribune:
Garcia began his year in March with a cynical and ill-advised attempt to pander to his Puerto Rican roots against veteran spoiler, Mauricio Herrera, in a supposed ?Homecoming? bout held in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
Receiving just a tepid response from the Puerto Rican fans, things got even dicier when Herrera outworked and outhustled the defending WBC/WBA champ, but found himself screwed on the scorecards and the recipient of a majority decision loss.
Garcia followed up that public relations disaster with lots of hemming and hawing about who to fight next before settling on an undersized and deeply overmatched Rod Salka.
The Pittsburgh-based Salka, a light-hitting natural lightweight, was ranked no.71 in the 135 lb. division by Boxrec at the time. The bout was such a blatant mismatch that even the nefarious WBA and WBC championship committees refused to sanction the bout as a title match.
But instead of ditching Salka after the sanctioning bodies walked away, Garcia?s team used the bout?s unsanctioned status as an excuse for Garcia to cut training and stop trying to make the 140 lb. limit.
Garcia-Salka would be repackaged as a 142 lb. catchweight bout, becoming even more of a mismatch.
Predictably, a Garcia who hulked over his hapless opponent, won in a blow-out, brutally knocking Salka out the very first time he let his hands go in the second round.
After the fight, Garcia would double-down on the rhetoric coming from his team and try to rationalize Salka as a qualified opponent while simultaneously and subtly distancing himself from questions about fighting anyone actually worth fighting.
A high-profile NBC showdown with highly-ranked fellow 140 lb. titlist Lamont Peterson (for some reason staged as a non-title 143 lb. catchweight bout) would be next for the beleaguered Garcia.
A tepid performance from Garcia resulted in a majority decision victory for the Philly fighter. But the Garcia win was, really, more Peterson loss as the underdog clearly won every moment where he chose to engage. Unfortunately for Peterson, he waited far too long to step up his offense, losing early rounds by default, before realizing that Garcia was not really going to put up much of an effort.
And that takes us to Saturday’s fight against the light-hitting, one-foot-and-four-toes out the door Paulie Malignaggi.
Garcia did what was expected of him in beating the 34-year-old Malignaggi. The cynical matchmaking involved in picking on Paulie created a bit of a lose-lose for the 27-year-old. Garcia wasn’t going to get much credit for beating Malignaggi and, barring an explosive one-round blowout of the veteran two-division champ, his image was destined to take another shot to the gut.
In two years, Garcia has managed to go from universally respected young lion to walking punchline. And the worst part of this fall from grace is that Garcia seems legitimately oblivious to the gigantic “meh” that he’s turned himself into.
The money has been good under the umbrella of advisor Al Haymon, though, and the playing field has definitely been modified to his ultimate benefit. Maybe the good life has made Danny soft and just a wee bit lazy. Too many free meals can make you bloated with contentment.
In boxing, sooner or later, even with the most careful of matchmaking, someone hungrier will come along and take from you what you have taken for granted. It’s nature’s way of separating the warriors from those just fighting for a paycheck.
Unless Danny Garcia can find the fire once again and stop going through the motions, play-acting fighter, his days are numbered as a main stage presence. The fans have already lashed out at his apparent lack of real fighting interest and it’s just a matter of time before an opponent manages to knock a daydreaming Garcia back into the real world.
