By Keith Idec, photo by Ryan Hafey/PBC
Danny Garcia thinks there is much more at stake against Keith Thurman than their welterweight titles.
With Floyd Mayweather Jr. retired and Manny Pacquiao not far behind him, Garcia considers his 147-pound championship unification fight against Thurman a prime opportunity to become boxing’s next welterweight star. It doesn’t hurt, obviously, that their fight Saturday night at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center likely will be watched by millions more people on CBS than if Showtime or HBO were to televise it.
Moreover, Philadelphia’s Garcia (33-0, 19 KOs) feels he has earned his spot as one of the most prominent people in boxing because he has beaten such accomplished former champions as Lucas Matthysse, Amir Khan, Zab Judah, Erik Morales, Lamont Peterson and Kendall Holt. Adding Thurman to that list would only elevate him even more, according to Garcia.
“If you look at the last five years in the sport of boxing, since 2012,” Garcia explained during a recent conference call, “and you looked at the level of opposition that every other champion’s faced, and you look at the level of opposition that I faced, and the divisions that I won and unified are the hardest divisions in the sport of boxing. So if you go off the people I’ve faced in the last five years and the titles that I’ve won, [beating Thurman] makes me the face of boxing.”
Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs) didn’t go quite that far, though the Clearwater, Florida native also appreciates what winning this intriguing matchup between unbeaten welterweight champions could do for his career.
“The winner of this fight is gonna be the man of the 147 division,” Thurman said during the same conference call. “And then lately, the welterweight division, whoever’s at the top of 147 kind of has been the face of boxing. And it is due to Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao and things of that nature. And, you know, the heavyweight division is coming back. But the fight fans, true boxing fans, they’re on everything, you know? They’re onto Triple-G, Canelo, you know, Wilder and Joshua.
“But still, with all that going on, man, 147 is a tremendous weight class. And the winner of this fight is gonna get a little bit of what I call spotlight priority, man. They’re gonna step [up in] the world of boxing. They’re gonna get talked about a lot more. And they’re gonna get some high expectations set upon them. It just is what it is. It’s what comes when you are champion, and you stay champion, and you keep making a name for yourself. So it’s our job to fight, it’s our job to win, and it’s you guys’ job to talk about it. And, you know, we’re always willing to do these interviews and things of that nature. So it’s just what comes with the territory, man. But I’m looking forward to making history at 147 and holding down this weight class for a few more years.”
The scheduled 12-rounder between Garcia, the WBC world welterweight champion, and Thurman, the WBA world welterweight champion, will be the main event of a CBS doubleheader set to start at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. In the co-featured fight, heavy-handed junior middleweight prospect Erickson Lubin (17-0, 12 KOs), of Orlando, Florida, and Mexico’s Jorge Cota (25-1, 22 KOs) will meet in a 12-rounder.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
