NEW YORK ? Danny Garcia is the most difficult of boxers to quantify because unlike many popular fighters today he is not less than what he appears to be. He is more.
When one assesses the WBC welterweight champion?s various pugilistic gifts ? hand speed, foot speed, power, agility, defensive skill, ring intelligence ? he is never found at the top of the list. Only when it comes to grit does one find him without peer but frankly there are many names atop that list because one does not reach the highest levels of prize fighting if you are not mentally tough. This is particularly true of someone like Garcia, who has no other skill so outstanding that he could long survive without a deep reservoir of grit.
That will be tested tonight by undefeated WBA champion Keith Thurman at the Barclays Center in what will be only the third unification fight between undefeated welterweight champions in boxing history and only the 10th welterweight unification fight ever. This does not mean it is Leonard-Hearns or De La Hoya-Trinidad but it certainly justifies it being only the second prime-time fight on CBS in nearly 40 years.
What it also means is it?s probably the best matchup possible in any weight division today and one that will test whether Thurman is who those who have made him the clear favorite believe he is.
Thurman is the superior athlete and, some say, the harder puncher. In boxing you might ask, what else is there? Well, there are guys like Garcia (33-0, 19 KO), who simply keep finding ways to win when others say it?s unlikely.
Garcia has a far better resume than Thurman (27-0, 22 KO), whose only real top-level opponent was former world champion Shawn Porter last year. He won a close decision there that could have gone either way. Garcia, on the other hand, has beaten better competition throughout his career, including Amir Khan, Lucas Matthysse, Lamont Peterson, Robert Guerrero, Paulie Malignaggi and Zab Judah. On many of those occasions he was not supposed to win, yet he did.
Oddly, that is Garcia?s edge tonight. He has faced sterner tests and passed them all and so enters the ring without illusion while the same may not be true for Thurman.
?He?s never been in the ring with a guy like me,?? Garcia claims. ?My honest assessment is he?s a built-up champion. I?m just fighting someone with a lot of momentum who thinks he can knock everyone out. That?s it. Once I break his momentum, then what?
?The critics will be the critics. They don?t know what I can do. They don?t understand why I?m still here. I earned my way by beating people. I?ve been here before. I?ve been in unification fights before (at 140 pounds). This is not new to me.
?I know what I can do. I?m a better counter puncher than he is. I?m sharper and I?ll prove it. Everything in my career has led me to this fight. I always rise to the occasion. At the end of the day, Danny Garcia comes to fight and he comes to win.??
Even Thurman concedes that. Although he believes that will change tonight, he seems to realize Garcia is the trickiest and most dangerous of opponents.
?He has always prevailed,?? Thurman said of Garcia. ?But ultimately, looking at the books and the record, I think Danny has been in more close decisions than I?ve been. He just lets people be in the fight with him more than I believe fighters have been in the fight with me. I think I?ve had more dominant decisions over my opponents than Garcia and that gives me confidence in winning this fight.
?I?m bigger than Danny, naturally. He was always smaller than me in the amateurs. He?s smaller than me in the pros. He?s moving up (in weight). He may hold the weight well but I?m just a little bigger so that gives me some confidence there.
?I have less fights and more knockouts so I believe that I do punch harder and that I?ll just edge him out statistically a little bit. It?s going to come down to who lands the right punches at the right time. I don?t bow down to nobody. I know I?m the greatest challenge most fighters will ever face, so there?s where my confidence comes from.??
Thurman makes reasonable points but forgets a significant fact. By any measure, Danny Garcia is by far the biggest challenge he?s faced. Knocking people out is a measuring stick in boxing but who you are knocking out is the more significant factor. On that score, Garcia has the superior resume and hence, in this view, will do what he has thus far always done. He will win ? somehow.
It will not be easy because all Thurman says about his punching power and athleticism is true. But so too is the fact that getting rid of Danny Garcia is more difficult than getting crab grass out of the lawn. You dig, you weed, you set poisonous traps, but it is all for naught. In the end, the same is true with Garcia. He wins because he doesn?t lose.
Simple as that sounds it is the best way to explain how Garcia put himself in the position he is tonight, one win away from unifying the welterweight division. It is not that he has one superior talent. It is that he has no fatal flaw, no defect so damning it defeats him.
That does not mean he is unbeatable. No man inside a boxing ring is. Keith Thurman could hit him on the sweet spot and knock him cold. It happens ? but I wouldn?t bet on it.
?I been underrated my whole career,?? Garcia said. ?Every time I beat somebody there was an excuse or every time I?m in a tough fight they?re always saying it was controversial. That?s the image the media is trying to give me.
?I faced adversity my whole life. Not just in boxing but in the street life of Philadelphia. I faced adversity in the Khan fight. He cut me early. He won the first few rounds. I came back. I stopped him. The Matthysse fight I was the underdog. He put pressure on me. I dropped him. I been through a lot of adversity in my life. That?s what I live for ? to overcome anything.
?My job is not to worry about the media. My job is not to worry about people underrating me. My job is to win.??
Don?t ask me how but tonight he?ll do that again.
