In this week’s mailbag, we tackle your thoughts on Danny Garcia winding down his career but not yet committing to hanging up his gloves, and Garcia’s credentials for induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

We also discuss whether a fight between undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and rising contender Moses Itauma needs to happen; and if AI judging will be the answer to some of our sport’s woes.

DANNY GARCIA SHOULDN’T BE FOOLED BY “FAREWELL FIGHT” WIN

I thought this was sold as Danny Garcia's retirement fight; that is why they picked a cab driver. Then he says he might not retire (“Danny Garcia’s emotions high – and mixed – on the edge of retirement”). Maybe stopping a cab driver has got to his head thinking he might have something left, when in reality he is washed. 

-Boxing 112

Ryan Songalia’s response:  I have to push back on this “cab driver” narrative. Danny Gonzalez has been a solid pro for over a decade and has done well up until he gets to the top level, which is where Danny Garcia is. 

Gonzalez was an attractive opponent for several reasons, given that he’s a native of Queens who has been a decent ticket seller, and he was willing to come up in weight to 154lbs to get there. Gonzalez was fighting well out of his weight class, and with his build, probably should still be fighting back at 140, where he boxed up until 2021. Gonzalez’s record was built in New York, which is probably the toughest place to get an opponent approved, so it’s not like he built his record exclusively in Tijuana or North Carolina. Gonzalez got caught with the same left hook that knocked out a number of world champions; it happens.

That said, if we’re going to indict Garcia for going back on his word regarding retirement, we might as well build a new prison just to fill it with boxers. The allure of the ring, and the paydays that come with it, is hard to resist. For his own sake, I hope Garcia does hang them up, just because he has nothing left to prove and he himself acknowledges how dangerous the sport is. And the next time he promotes an event, I hope he doesn’t schedule 14 fights and keep the fans in the building until 1 a.m.

OLEKSANDR USYK DOESN’T NEED TO FACE MOSES ITAUMA

Moses Itauma hasn't earned a fight with Oleksandr Usyk yet (“Oleksandr Usyk won’t be fighting Moses Itauma anytime soon”). Let’s face it: It’s not good risk/reward for Usyk either. It comes across like promoters trying to use Usyk’s name in the twilight of his career to build up a young new star. It isn't really worth it for him. 

-TMLT87

Jake Donovan’s response: The good news is that Usyk agrees with you. Based on how Itauma has been matched in 2025, I’m inclined to say that Queensberry Promotions agrees as well. 

Itauma is the No. 1 contender with both the WBA and WBO, both of whose secondary titles are at stake in this weekend’s Joseph Parker-Fabio Wardley clash. Usyk is due to face the Parker-Wardley winner, with the WBO expected to immediately order that fight. If Usyk declines, then said winner gets upgraded to the WBO’s full titlist. 

There is no excuse for Itauma, as the top contender, to not challenge for that belt next for his first fight of 2026. If not – well, Queensberry’s heavyweight stable is the deepest in the sport. Again, no excuses for Itauma’s next fight to not come against a consensus contender.

DANNY GARCIA WILL BE A HALL OF FAMER BUT DOESN’T DESERVE IT

Should Danny Garcia get into the Hall of Fame? No. Will he? Probably. With Arturo Gatti and Vinny Pazienza in, it’s hard to say no to Danny, who was lineal and unified champion at 140. 

-MalevolentBite

Lucas Ketelle’s response: Danny Garcia is right on the cusp of being a Hall of Famer. For me, he is in. He took his position atop the sport with wins over Amir Khan and Lucas Matthysse. There are also less-qualified fighters than him in the Hall of Fame. 

Garcia at junior welterweight was something special. Multiple upset wins, the best in the division, and he had longevity, something that should matter for a Hall of Famer. He also defined an era of fighters who became the faces of Premier Boxing Champions. He did it all rather gracefully.

Yet in the last 10 years, he hasn’t had that same magic. He had close fights, losses, and opponents we didn’t want to see that cast a shadow over his career. 

I am more curious about what the voters think. Garcia is a 50-50 choice when it comes to modern fighters, and the standard that is set by his induction or lack of induction will set the tone for fighters from the 2010s looking to enter the hall, such as Deontay Wilder, Leo Santa Cruz, Errol Spence Jnr, Shawn Porter and Keith Thurman. It is quite possible one of those fighters will not get in, and Garcia’s outcome will shed light.

DON’T REPLACE HUMAN JUDGES WITH AI JUDGING

I don't think that AI will ever replace human judges, nor should it. A lot of the complaints about judging come from people who are mad that their guy lost. People who were drinking, getting high, talking with friends, letting the dogs out in the middle of a round, on the phone, etc, etc, instead of watching the way that a judge is trained to do. Then they get on the internet and scream about corruption. 

I will agree that sometimes I wonder what fight a guy was watching, but unless I watched with 100% concentration, keeping track of who was ahead constantly, I'm not going to assume that a person is corrupt. That's a really serious accusation. 

If one judge consistently is getting scores that don’t align with what the other two judges are seeing, then they need to be talked to by the commission, because although judging boxing is subjective, everyone is watching the same fight and should be seeing pretty much the same thing the majority of the time. Even then, I would assume incompetence first before corruption. 

-CPNUTKnockoutFreshMart

David Greisman’s response: I agree with so much of what you said. Yes, so many people call a result a robbery when they didn’t score the bout themselves, or they weren’t paying full attention during the fight, or when it was just a close fight that could have gone either way. That is why I have long been a proponent for us unofficial judges marking “swing rounds” that we feel were close enough that they reasonably could have gone either way. Then, afterward, I swing those rounds in the other direction and create what I believe is a reasonable range of scores.

I do think there’s plenty of bad or questionable judging. But we rarely have answers, never mind satisfying answers, about what the judges thought they were looking at. Part of it is that we in the media tend to move on very quickly to the next set of stories in this neverending cycle of coverage. The other part is that officials in most sports tend not to be available to the media afterward; and even those contacted may not want to speak to reporters. We should still try, and we should also try to get the commissions on the record. 

Even the best of the best can perform poorly. Look no further than the baseball umpires who miss an extraordinary number of calls when deciding balls and strikes.

The problem is that boxing judges aren’t held to account. How many judges have we seen return to ringside after submitting highly questionable cards? The fact that the judges who ripped off Erislandy Lara against Paul Williams were suspended was an exception, rather than a precedent.

I don’t think AI is the answer, however. Not yet, at least. I’d first want to learn more about how that sausage is made. I once rode in a driverless taxi and was able to see what it was detecting and how it was making decisions as a result. I’d love for AI judging to go through classic matches, be they controversial or straightforward, and not only tell us what their scores were each round, but why.

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