Garcia vs Benavidez: A Crossroad Fight
By Ralph Rimpell
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 26 Jul 2022
On Saturday night July 30, 2022, former 2-division champion Danny Garcia (36-3, 18KOs) and former interim world champion Jose Benavidez, Jr. (29-1-1, 18KOs) will fight in the 154 lbs. division in a crossroads fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn NY. The winner of this fight will be in line to fight undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo after he successfully defends his 4 titles against his mandatories (WBO -Tim Tszyu, WBC - Sebastian Fundora, WBA – Israil Madrimov (#1 ranked fighter), IBF- Bakhram Murtazaliev). This writer guesstimates that barring any injuries and the mandatory fights can be made, there will be two mandatories title defenses within a 12-month span. Unless there is a voluntary defense, Charlo loses the title, or vacates any of his titles the winner of Garcia-Benavidez will get a shot in 2024 at the earliest. That being said, what do Boxing fans know about Danny Garcia?
Garcia rose to prominence in the boxing world when he upset ring legend Eric Morales for the WBC junior welterweight (140lbs) crown back in 2012 with a unanimous decision victory. Garcia’s first defense of the title showed his victory over Morales was not a fluke by scoring a 4th round knockout victory over former Olympic silver medalist and fellow WBA champion Amir Kahn unifying the titles. He followed that up with another knockout in a rematch with Eric Morales in the 4th round as well. Garcia was “The Man” in junior welterweight division. Garcia having difficulty making the 140lbs weight limit, decided to move to welterweight (147lbs) in 2016. He defeated former world champion Robert Guerrero via unanimous decision for the vacant WBC welterweight crown. In a unification fight with WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman, Garcia lost his WBC title. Garcia has been 3-3 in his last six fights. Garcia is now campaigning in the junior middleweight division in hopes of winning a 3rd world crown in as many divisions. Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) headed by Al Hayman has done an excellent job guiding Garcia’s career because Garcia has won world titles and made millions. A victory over Benavidez puts Garcia once again in a position to make more millions and win more world titles.
What do fans know about Jose Benavidez, Jr.?
Hardcore boxing fans know Benavidez’s younger brother David a fighter that nobody seems to want to fight. David, a two time WBC super-middleweight champion and current interim WBC super-middleweight interim champion, is lobbying for a fight against undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, Jermall Charlo (Jermell’s twin brother), and Caleb Plant. Jose’s career was very promising back when he won the interim WBA welterweight crown back in 2014. His career was temporarily derailed when he suffered a gunshot wound to his right leg in 2016 while walking his cat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Benavidez_Jr.). According to David Benavidez, Sr., Jose’s leg is only 80% after the injury (https://www.boxingscene.com/jose-benavidezs-leg-80-best-father-says--142789). Jose would win two more fights after being shot in the leg and then challenge WBO welterweight champion Terrence Crawford in a losing effort by TKO in the 12th round back in 2018. Jose has only fought once since the Crawford loss, a draw to Francisco Emanuel Torres in 2021. Jose too hopes to rejuvenate his career with a victory over Danny Garcia on Saturday night.
Saturday night’s fight is a must win for both fighters. The winner of this fight will eventually fight for a title or fight for an interim title. The winner can also expect to earn good prize money in the future fighting the elite fighters of the junior middle weight division. The loser of this fight will be relegated to gatekeeper status and will be used as a test for up and coming fighters looking to make a name for themselves in boxing. Therefore, Garcia vs Benavidez is truly a crossroads fight for both fighters.
Boxing Notes
Can you believe that as of the writing of this article NO OFFICIAL WORD that Crawford vs Spence has been signed? Most fight fans had hoped that the fight would have been signed by now. The longer it takes for an announcement that the fight has been signed and the persistent rumors that unrealistic purse demands are being made by both boxing camps are dampening the hopes of hardcore boxing fans that this fight will happen. The latest word was the fight was scheduled to happen in October 2022. Now the latest rumor is it will happen in November 2022. Let’s all keep a good attitude that Crawford and Spence come to terms and give the boxing world what they want which is a great fight…The WBA has ordered champion Dimtry Bivol vs former 168 champion Gilberto Ramirez. That is gonna be a great fight! Imagine Beterbiev vs the winner of Ramirez vs Bivol. Boxing is back and stronger than ever!...Ryan Garcia says that he wants to fight Tank Davis at 140lbs after he defeated Fortuna last week. The Davis camp responded to Ryan saying they will ONLY fight Ryan Garcia at 135lbs. Ryan Garcia reportedly says he will fight Davis at 135lbs. This Writer will believe that Ryan Garcia vs Tank Davis will actually happen when I see both fighters opposite each other in the ring in Las Vegas on a Saturday night.
***Ralph Rimpell is a writer based out of New York and is a Boxing Correspondent for Philboxing.com. Ralph holds an undergraduate degree from City University of New York. He has been a Boxing Writer for over ten years having written for several top boxing websites on the World Wide Web. Before becoming a writer, Ralph's passion was for professional wrestling until he realized professional wrestling was entertainment and not a real sport. It was at that time the 1984 US Olympic team made up of future stars such as Evander Holyfield, Meldrick Taylor, Pernell Whitaker, etc. entered the professional ranks and signed with promotional outfit Main Events.It was also at that time a young exciting Heavyweight originally hailing from Brooklyn named Mike Tyson also turned professional and became the face of boxing. Young boxing fan Ralph just couldn't get enough of boxing as a large part of it was being broadcast on "free TV". As time went on, Ralph felt boxing writers were not being forthcoming with their boxing coverage, opinion pieces, interviews, etc. So Ralph decided to write an article and submitted it to a Boxing website thinking it would be deleted and ignored by the Editor. To Ralph's surprise his article was posted on their website and the readers embraced it. The rest is history.
"I thank God for the Internet because it has created opportunities for writers like myself who likely would not have been given an opportunity to write for print publications. I hope someday soon to expand my role in Boxing on different levels." -- Ralph Rimpell
Contact writer: RLuvsboxing@aol.com
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ralph Rimpell.
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