Angel Garcia: Danny Could Ruin Thurman's Career, Like Matthysse's

By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – When the cameras went away, Angel Garcia made maybe his most provocative comment about Keith Thurman.

Danny Garcia’s father and trainer suggested after a press conference last week in which he cursed and screamed at Thurman that his son could ruin Thurman’s career March 4. Angel Garcia pointed to the damage Danny Garcia did to Lucas Matthysse during their grueling, 12-round fight in September 2013 as evidence of what could happen to Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs) when he faces Danny Garcia in a welterweight title unification fight at Barclays Center in Brooklyn (CBS).

“Yeah, it could happen,” Angel Garcia said. “Like I just said, MMA [fighters] get knocked out real fast and they live again. A boxer could go through 12 rounds of punishment and you’ll never be the same guy again. Look at Matthysse, [Danny] ruined his career. Matthysse was never the same after that.

“Everything Danny touches never be the same after that. Matthysse, Danny fractured his cheek bone, his jaw bone. They were saying the corner did [because] they were putting the Enswell on too hard.”

Argentina’s Matthysse (37-4, 34 KOs, 1 NC) was more than a 2-1 favorite over Philadelphia’s Garcia (33-0, 19 KOs) when they met in a highly anticipated, 140-pound championship unification fight on the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Canelo Alvarez pay-per-view undercard.

Many boxing fans and media thought Matthysse would knock out Garcia, but Garcia withstood Matthysse’s vaunted power, dropped Matthysse in the 11th round and won a unanimous decision (115-111, 114-112, 114-112). Garcia had a point deducted for a low blow in the 12th round, but his defeat of Matthysse stands out as perhaps the most impressive victory of Garcia’s nine-year career.

The 34-year-old Matthysse, meanwhile, went 3-0 in his three fights after losing to Garcia. Two of those three fights were wars, however, with John Molina Jr. and Ruslan Provodnikov.

He beat Molina by 11th-round knockout, yet was dropped during the second and fifth rounds of that bout. Provodnikov didn’t drop Matthysse, but Matthysse took a lot of punishment on his way to winning a majority decision in April 2015.

Russia’s Viktor Postol knocked out Matthysse in the 10th round of his following fight. The rugged knockout artist hasn’t fought in the 15 months since Postol knocked him out, but reportedly has overcome an eye injury and will return to the ring later this year.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.