Thurman: Garcia Hasn't Faced Real Challenges at Welterweight

By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – Keith Thurman respects Danny Garcia’s accomplishments within the junior welterweight division.

As a welterweight, though, Thurman doesn’t believe Garcia has truly established himself as one of the best 147-pounders in boxing. Philadelphia’s Garcia is 3-0 as a full-fledged welterweight, but victories over Paulie Malignaggi, Robert Guerrero and Samuel Vargas haven’t impressed Thurman all that much.

“Some of my confidence is the fact that I don’t feel like Danny has faced the real challengers in the welterweight division,” Thurman said following Thursday’s press conference in Manhattan. “Is he a welterweight champion? Yes. But I plan on showing him why this is a new weight class for him. This is different. This is a different level, especially when you step into this weight class and you face Keith Thurman, you know?”

The 28-year-old Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs, 1 NC) has fought at or just above the welterweight limit since he turned pro in November 2007. He has beaten seven former world champions in welterweight fights and believes he has displayed diversity during those fights that Garcia can’t match in their welterweight title unification fight Saturday night at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center (CBS; 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT).

“I have a lot of confidence, but it comes from just understanding myself, understanding that I’m not one-dimensional,” Thurman said. “I do have an ego, but I don’t let my ego block me from gaining victory. You’ve seen that from fighters, where they want it to go a certain way, so they force it, they force it, they force it. It’s not working, bro. Stop forcing it.

“My confidence just comes from understanding how good I really am as a fighter. Just like Danny said [at] the podium [Thursday]. ‘You guys keep saying I’m an underdog, but I keep winning because I’m the better fighter.’ Danny sees himself as the better fighter. He signs these contracts because he believes that he is the better fighter.”

For all the talk of the 5-feet-7½ Thurman being the bigger, stronger fighter, and the more natural welterweight, the 5-8½ Garcia considers himself the bigger puncher. The former WBA/WBC 140-pound champion also suspects that being new to this weight class is an advantage for him because Thurman struggles to make the 147-pound limit for welterweights.

“I definitely feel like I’m the stronger fighter,” Garcia said. I feel like I’m the fresher welterweight. I should’ve been a welterweight [for a long time]. I was squeezing my body down to 140. It was actually hurting me a little bit, but I was a champion and I didn’t wanna give up the titles. But I feel like I could’ve been a welterweight. I’m definitely the fresher guy at 147. I don’t have to kill myself to make the weight. So I definitely feel strong.

“I have three fights at welterweight, two of them are [wins] by TKO. And they’re in the later rounds [ninth and seventh]. At 140, I was knocking everybody out early; my knockouts came early. These show that I’m gonna be stronger at the end of the fight and I’m gonna be able to stop people late. So that’s definitely something that has been working in my favor, being at 147 and being able to close the show late, too.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.