Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter are both badly in need of a high-profile win. Garcia (34-1, 20 KOs), ranked No. 14 in the Pound-For-Pound Moneymakers list, has fought just once in the past 18 months, and he hasn?t beaten an elite fighter in his prime since Lamont Peterson in 2015.
Meanwhile, Porter (28-2-1, 17 KOs) has lost the two biggest fights in his career vs. Keith Thurman and Kell Brook, and if he can slip by Garcia, he?ll be seen again as one of the top-5 fighters in the welterweight division.
The two have plenty at stake when they meet Saturday for a vacant welterweight belt at 9 p.m. ET on Showtime?Garcia is a -165 favorite, while Porter is the slight +135 underdog?and there are plenty of reasons to watch them tangle. Here are three of them.
1) Can Garcia counter Porter?s aggressiveness?: Porter, No. 15 on the Pound-For-Pound Moneymakers list, will likely be the aggressor on Saturday. But Garcia thinks Porter stalking him and trying to make it an inside slugfest will only benefit Garcia. ?Shawn’s style is exactly what I like to go up against,? Garcia said. ?I want him to come forward and walk into my counter-punching. I have power in both hands and I’m going to make him feel it. If he comes and opens up, I’m going to land a clean shot early. If he can’t recover, then I’m going to have a chance to finish him. I’m going to dictate the pace and fight my fight.? But if Porter can hurt Garcia?considering Garcia has a fantastic chin, that won?t be easy to accomplish?that fight plan will be harder to implement.
2) Porter feels refreshed: While Garcia hasn?t been active lately, this is also Porter?s first fight of 2018. His latest inactivity, though, won?t hurt, he said. ?If anything, I’m healthier, I’m happy and I’m relaxed,? Porter said. ?I’m fully recovered for anything that I’ve been through and you know the list goes on there. I think that if anything, I’ll have fresh legs late and a fresh mind to get in the ring with Danny. I think in the past just the time in between fights has made me stay hungry. ? Everything in this fight has kept me hungry from the moment that the talk began about this fight happening.?
3) Boxers are split predicting the winner: In the leadup to the fight, Showtime released a number of boxer predictions about who will win. Fighters like Errol Spence, Manny Pacquiao, Mikey Garcia and Victor Ortiz think Garcia will win. Others like Keith Thurman, Robert Guerrero and Jamal James are picking Porter. And while Sugar Ray Leonard didn?t outright pick a victor, he provided some good analysis. ?Garcia will win if he uses his jab to keep Porter at bay and off balance, but Porter gains a victory if he connects and hurts Garcia early and makes him abandon his boxing ability and fight like a slugger,? Leonard said.
Superfly 3 is primed for HBO: The Showtime event isn?t the only major card on Saturday night. At 9:45 p.m. ET, HBO will present the third version of its celebrated Superfly shows, where some of the top 115-pounders in the world compete against each other.
The first Superfly card featured Srisaket Sor Rungvisai shockingly knocking out former No. 1 pound for pound fighter Roman ?Chocolatito? Gonzalez and Juan Francisco Estrada beating Carlos Cuadras by decision. Superfly II showcased Sor Rungvisai beating Juan Francisco Estrada and Donnie Nietes knocking out Juan Carlos Reveco.
But the third installment doesn?t seem to have the buzz of the first two. In the main event, Estrada?who is set to make a $150,000 guarantee according to ESPN?is taking on Felipe Orucata, while Nietes and McWilliams Arroyo (who beat Cuadras on Superfly II) are the favorites against their respective undercard opponents. But without Sor Rungvisai, Gonzalez, or pound-for-pound star Naoya Inoue on the card, it simply lacks the same sizzle as the previous two events.
The first Superfly card averaged 796,000 viewers with a peak of 835,000 on HBO, and the sequel garnered 639,000 and 753,000 viewers, respectively. It wouldn?t be surprising for the third version to have even lower numbers, especially because of the Garcia-Porter matchup competing on HBO?s premium cable rival.
This week in boxing history: Witness the style of Sugar Ray Robinson, one of the best boxers of all time, and how he got from Point A to Point B.
After Robinson died in 1989, the New York Times wrote about his propensity for lavish spending, which kept him boxing well past his best years in the ring (he finished his career with a 174-19-6 (109 KOs) record).
?Money is for spending,? Robinson said. ?Money is for having a good time.?
Robinson estimated he spent more than $4 million, but he also said he had no regrets. ?If I had the chance to do it over again,? he once said, ?I?d do it the same way.?
