Make It Happen: Danny Garcia vs. Terence Crawford
By: Matthew N. Becher
It started last week when the father/trainer of WBC Welterweight champion Danny Garcia’s, Angel, told Fighthype.com that “HBO should be embarrassed” about putting the Terrence Crawford v. Viktor Postol fight on pay per view. Angel followed with “the REAL champion, they don’t get no respect and they don’t get no exposure”. This set an alarm off in a lot of boxing fans heads since it has always seemed that Angel Garcia has never wanted “respect” or “exposure” for his son Danny. Earlier this year it was confirmed by Top Rank promotions that an offer was extended to Danny Garcia to fight Manny Pacquiao later this year for a fight purse between $3-4 million dollars, Angel was quick to end the negotiations.
Angel Garcia has also gone on the record as saying “Why would (elite) fighters fight each other when they can fight a Salka (referring to the time Danny Garcia took on a much smaller and less talented Rod Salka)?” When answered by the reporter “to see who’s the best”, Garcia scoffed and said, “it’s about the bank being loaded”. In his mind, why fight a tough opponent when you can just make money without any risk. Yes, $3-4 million would be Danny’s biggest payday, but it would also be his biggest risk, and what is the point to taking a risk.
Someone that took exceptional disrespect to the comments made last week was lineal Jr. Welterweight champion Terrence Crawford, who aired his anger out towards Garcia on twitter just two days ago.
“@DannySwift yo dad said im a made up champion for beating the guy yall was scared to fight”
“@DannySwift so I tell you what tell yo dad make the fight and ill show him how much of a paper champ I am at yo weight and for yo belt”
“@DannySwift that same stiff guy yall paid so you didn’t have to fight his that guy? Look im not them old guy you been fight you know that”
Danny Garcia responded with his own twitter comments:
“@budcrawford402 your fight did 50k buys lol if you wanna do real numbers and get defeated. Tell bob to call AL.”
“@budcrawford402 you doing what I did 3 years ago. I ain’t no little gamboa or stiff postal. I end careers check my track record”
The point to all of this is this. Danny Garcia is a talented young fighter. He is undefeated but does not seem to have the drive to become an elite fighter. He tries to make fun of Crawford’s lack of Pay per view buys, but has never been close to headlining a pay per view fight of his own. He was gifted the WBC welterweight belt in a vacant fight against a faded Robert Guerrero in only his second fight in the weight class. That fight took place in January of this year, and Garcia has still not fought since. His father is correct that taking the lesser fights, which he is still paid well for, keeps his son safe and the “bank loaded”, but his nickname in the boxing world also has changed from “Swift” to “Cherry” Garcia, because of all his handpicked opponents. He is currently in negotiations on another handpicked opponent from the PBC stable, Andre Berto.
Terrence Crawford is one of the fastest rising stars in the sport. He has a lesser known name, but is a top 5 pound for pound fighter and has already unified two divisions. Crawford does not necessarily need Garcia, but knows that a fight between them would be good for the sport and one, on a personal level, would be very good for him, since he feels that Angel Garcia has disrespected Crawford’s accomplishments.
This would be a fight between the “new” boxer, Garcia, that see’s this sport as a business. Selling his clothing line and name to make a profit. Against the “old” boxer, who fights because that is what he does, to solidify a legacy, to prove that no man can beat him and if he can, then he is going to have to get in that ring with him and prove it.