This Weekend North Philly’s Danny Garcia Won a Title That Used to Be Floyd Mayweather’s
Jan 23, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Danny Garcia, pumps his fist after defeating Robert Guerrero (not pictured) during their WBC welterweight boxing title fight at Staples Center. Garcia won by decision. Photo | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
A guy from North Philly is now the world champion in boxing’s most glamorous division. In fact, the WBC welterweight title Danny Garcia won on Saturday night was previously held by Floyd Mayweather.
Mayweather retired after winning one last fight in September, and his titles were declared vacant. Garcia won one of those vacant titles on Saturday in a unanimous decision over Robert Guerrero. The fight was not one-sided, but Garcia found a rhythm after a slow start and dominated most of the action in the final six rounds.
Danny Garcia is dressed like a Bratz doll. pic.twitter.com/PmBWs4ZcBr
— Dan McQuade (@dhm) January 24, 2016
Garcia is now 32-0 with 18 knockouts, and faces a mandatory title defense against Amir Khan. Garcia already beat Khan by TKO in the fourth round of a 2012 fight. Khan has fought just once since 2014. After that, Garcia could take on the winner of the March 12th Keith Thurman–Shawn Porter, which is for the WBA welterweight championship.
In a way, Garcia could be the anti-Floyd Mayweather. After the fight on Saturday, Garcia said he wanted to be a fighting champion: “I’m interested in whatever. I’m a champion now at 147. The champions have to fight the best fighters. Whatever match gets made, I’m ready.” Despite his dominance of the sport for the last decade, Mayweather was often slagged for taking long layoffs between fights and helping to delay a showdown with Manny Pacquiao.
Garcia, 27, was previously the champion at light welterweight before moving up a weight class. The North Philly native is also known for his bombastic father, who came to Philly from Puerto Rico as a child. Angel Garcia was a boxer as well, and taught his son the sport; Garcia began his career at the Harrowgate Boxing Club as a child. His dad talks trash before almost every fight. Garcia’s and Guerrero’s dads almost got into a fight at the final press conference before Saturday’s fight.
So Garcia is now the world welterweight champion, and he says he’s going to be a fighting champ. He’s not a Mayweather — Garcia is not in the top-10 of any pound-for-pound rankings — but Philly boxing fans can only hope he keeps beating people and gets there soon.
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