By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – A reporter prefaced a question posed to Danny Garcia on Thursday afternoon by stating that Angel Garcia predicted his son’s fight against Shawn Porter could end within three rounds.
Garcia’s father/trainer immediately interjected.
“It is gonna be over,” Angel Garcia exclaimed after their press conference at Dream Hotel Downtown. “He gets hit a lot, bro. He don’t got no skill. He just comes like, ‘Oh mercy, glory me, hallelujah!’ ”
Angel Garcia doesn’t believe Porter possesses the skill to out-box his son or the power to knock him out. That’s why he expects Danny Garcia to become the first opponent to knock out Porter when they fight Saturday night for the vacant WBC welterweight title at Barclays Center in Brooklyn (Showtime; 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT).
“He’s a sucker for a straight right hand,” Angel Garcia added. “If he’s doing that sh*t, what he did on video, like this [puts hands up to the side of his head], he’s a sucker for a straight right hand down the pike. And he can’t fight going backwards. Danny’s gonna hit this mother*cker. … Listen, brother, we’re gonna hit this guy with everything.”
The 30-year-old Garcia’s left hook is his trademark punch, but the former WBC welterweight and onetime WBA/WBC super lightweight champion has become more reliant on his straight right hand in recent years. He knocked out Brandon Rios in the ninth round after flooring Rios with a picture-perfect right hand February 17 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
“I feel like my right hand got stronger,” Danny Garcia said, “when I moved up in weight.”
The 31-year-old Porter feels he has the more complete skill set and will be able to confound Garcia by boxing both from a distance and inside.
Philadelphia’s Garcia (34-1, 20 KOs) and Las Vegas’ Porter (28-2-1, 17 KOs) will headline Showtime’s tripleheader Saturday night.
That three-fight telecast also will feature a 10-round heavyweight bout between Brooklyn’s Adam Kownacki (17-0, 14 KOs) and Charles Martin (25-1-1, 23 KOs), an ex-IBF champ from Carson, California. The show will open with Cuba’s Yordenis Ugas (23-3, 11 KOs) and Argentina’s Cesar Barrionuevo (34-3-2, 24 KOs) in a 12-round WBC welterweight eliminator that’ll establish the mandatory challenger for the Garcia-Porter winner.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
