Garcia, Peterson: No Focus on Mayweather-Pacquiao Victor

By Jake Donovan

You’d be hard-pressed to find a fighter alive in or around the welterweight division who wouldn’t love a crack at Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. With the two biggest stars in the sport facing each other in a titanic May 2 showdown, the question is no longer whether you want to fight either one, but how soon you’d like a crack at the winner.

Naturally, Danny Garcia and Lamont Peterson braced for the inevitable questions to come from reporters during a recent conference all. Both own hardware one division south at junior welterweight—Garcia the World lineal champion in addition to two alphabet titles, while Peterson with a trinket of his own—but their upcoming April 11 clash takes place at a maximum catchweight of 143 lbs.

Garcia fights above the 140 lb. limit for his second straight fight. His last ring appearance came on the same show as Peterson’s most recent fight, both winning in fights that were every bit the mismatches as was suggested on paper. Garcia knocked out Rod Salka inside of two rounds in a fight that came with a 142 lb. catchweight limit, with Salka moving up more than two divisions in weight.

Speculation behind the modified weight was that it was the next step in Garcia eventually moving up to welterweight. The unbeaten champion is as viable a candidate as any to next face the winner of the May 2 super fight, but for the moment not something over which he will lose any sleep.

“It’s any fighter’s dream to fight Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao,” Garcia (29-0, 17KOs) acknowledges. “Maybe in the future, I’ll go after them. But right now, I’m focused on my fight on April 11.”

The bout takes place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, marking Garcia’s fourth appearance at the venue, though the first time either he or Peterson will appear on NBC. Their upcoming clash will headline the next Premier Boxing Champions event live in prime time. With just three weeks prior to Mayweather-Pacquiao, a likely main focal point will be grooming the April 11 towards a future super fight of his own.

While Garcia is ready to embrace such a future down the road, Peterson is strictly living in the present. A showdown with one of the sport’s unbeaten rising stars is satisfying enough, and also very much reality without having to worry about mythical matchups.

“I’m not worried about Floyd Mayweather at all,” insists Peterson (33-2-1, 17KOs), who is coming off of a 10th round stoppage of Edgar Santana on the same show as Garcia-Salka. “I won’t hold my breath over it. I won’t think about it, or never worry about it.”

Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox