PACQUIAO'S MOST LIKELY OPPONENT IS DANNY GARCIA
By Maloney L. Samaco
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 04 Jan 2020
Danny Garcia dreams of facing eight division champion Manny Pacquiao as the senator 's next opponent. Pacquiao on his part has not announced yet who he will fight when he returns to ring action either this coming April or May. There were plans for the Filipino WBA welterweight champion to sign a unification fight with IBF and WBC welterweight titlist Errol Spence Jr. The match would mean bigger revenues for the boxing legend as his retirement from prizefighting would be coming soon.
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Spence said he wants to face either Garcia or Pacquiao and would like to unify all the welterweight belts. He survived a terrible car wreck on October 10 just days after defeating WBC champion Shawn Porter to add the green and gold belt to his IBF strap. Spence added that he doesn’t want a tune-up fight in his first appearance since the accident, suffering facial cuts and dental injuries, and would only want to face the division's best boxers.
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Garcia (35-2, 21 KOs) would be happy to fight Spence, but the former WBC welterweight champion said it “would be a dream come true” to face Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs). "In order to become a legend, you’ve gotta beat the legend,” Garcia was quoted by BoxingScene.com. “You know, Manny Pacquiao’s had an incredible career." He explained that a 40 year old beating a prime Thurman showed that he had an unimaginable ring experience. He identified Pacquiao as "somebody definitely all the boxers should look up to."
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Garcia of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is scheduled to face a lesser known southpaw in Ivan Redkach of Ukraine on January 25 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Garcia is heavily favored to win over Redkach (23-4-1, 18 KOs) and a victory will give hin a chance to challenge Pacquiao, hoping to achieve what Thurman failed to do last July 20 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
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Garcia was not surprised of Pacquiao’s split-decision win over Thurman. “I wasn’t surprised because stylistically, it’s a good style for Pacquiao,” Garcia said. “It’s kind of like when he fought Cotto. Cotto’s the same type of fighter, uses lateral movement." He called Pacquiao a sure Hall-of-Famer and don’t know what he has left to prove. "He’s done it all, and he’s still here. So, someone has to get him out of there to get him to retire.”
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Freddie Roach was quoted by Philstar's Quinito Henson pointing to Danny Garcia as his personal choice. Roach had already been thinking of Garcia facing Pacquiao four years ago, but the fight never materialized. “That’s the easiest fight in the world...I promise. Pacquiao will knock Danny out." in the same article MP Promotions head Sean Gibbons was quoted as saying: "If Danny wins on January 25, he’s in the lead. Redkach is a tough guy who comes to fight but Danny should win.”
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Garcia said that he has to win in spectacular fashion against Redkach. “I have to stop him. I have to go in there and do that same thing I did to (Adrian) Granados," Garcia told BoxingScene.com. "You know, Granados was never stopped before and he’s been in there with some good champions, in some tough fights. I went in there and was the first person to stop him."
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Garcia won the vacant WBC Silver welterweight title via 7th round TKO of Granados last April. Redkach has been knocked out twice by John Molina Jr. by 4th round KO and by Dejan Zlaticanin by 4th round TKO. Garcia said he has to stop him. It's his only concern to score an impressive win to be a worthy opponent of Pacquiao.
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Danny Garcia was champion in two weight classes, including the unified WBA (Super), WBC, The Ring magazine and lineal light welterweight titles between 2012 and 2015, and the WBC welterweight title from 2016 to 2017. As of August 2019, Garcia is ranked as the world's No. 5 welterweight by BoxRec, No. 6 by The Ring and No. 7 by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board.
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Garcia lost to Shawn Porter on September 8 2018 by unanimous decision by scores of 116-112, 115-113, 115-113. He was also defeated by Thurman on March 4, 2017 via split decision with judges' cards of 116-112, 113-115, 115-113.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.
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