By Miguel Rivera
Prior to his next defense of the World Boxing Council [WBC] welterweight championship, undefeated puncher Danny "Swift" Garcia (32-0, 18KOs), is preparing to secure a convincing win over Colombian Samuel Vargas in a ten round non-title encounter.
The fight will take place this Saturday at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and it will be broadcast by Televisa Deportes in Mexico and Spike TV in the United States.
If Garcia wins, he will head to a unification with WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman on March 4th.
Garcia's title dreams don't end there. He wants to continue gaining more world titles and has his sights set on WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao for a year-end battle in 2017.
Pacquiao captured the WBO world title last Saturday night, when he decisioned Jessie Vargas at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. He wants to fight again in May, but the date has yet to be finalize and then he wants to fight one more time before the year is out.
The Filpino star's trainer, Freddie Roach, has been hungry for a showdown with Garcia. He's been asking Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum of Top Rank, to get them Garcia for the last two years. In the past, Arum had a hostile relationship with Garcia's manager Al Haymon. Those bad feelings are in the past, as Arum and Haymon are now on very good terms and willing to do business together.
Garcia would like to get revenge for Puerto Rico, after Pacquiao battered Miguel Cotto for a knockout in the twelfth round of their 2009 encounter. Pacquiao has not scored a knockout victory since.
"Of course I'd like to fight Manny Pacquiao. That fight would change my life and the lives of everyone around me. To beat someone so important would raise me to the sky. Of course I think I would have to look for that fight, possibly before the end of next year, but first I must prove who "Swift" Garcia is and everybody will know that on Saturday," Garcia said.
