By: Sean Crose
“I can’t make no excuse,” Danny Garcia said to the media immediately after his unanimous decision loss Saturday night to WBC and IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence. “I beat champions and champions beat me.” Garcia certainly proved to be a brave and game warrior on Saturday night. Not only did he fight Spence in front of Spence’s hometown crowd at Dallas’ AT&T Stadium, he had moments of effectiveness, as well. According to Garcia’s father and trainer Angel, however, those moments were too few and far between.
“He didn’t do nothing wrong today,” the elder Garcia said. “He just didn’t do enough.” Although his son was clearly beaten up beside him, Garcia’s father wasn’t afraid to be critical as a trainer. “He took the shots well,” he said of his son. “He just got to get busier.” As far as the elder Garcia was concerned, his fighter didn’t do terribly in the ring. He simply needed to be more consistent. “He let his hands go,” he said, “but not like he was supposed to.”
As for Spence, he made it crystal clear during his post fight press conference that he isn’t particularly interested in facing Terence Crawford, the fellow welterweight titlist most fans would like to see him fight. “I’m not thinking about that,” the undefeated champion said when asked about a match with the only man truly seen as his peer. “If he says he’s not worried about me,” Spence asked rhetorically, “what was he doing here (at AT&T Stadium)? I don’t know what he was doing here. I’m not going to any of his fights.” One person Spence was clearly impressed with was his opponent from earlier in the evening, Garcia. “He’s a real fighter, man” Spence said of the former titlist. “He’s not going to go out easy.”
As for his performance in Saturday’s fight, Crawford indicated he was pleased – but not that pleased. “I think I had a little bit of ring rust in there,” he admitted. As far as the Texan was concerned, though, his training for the Garcia bout paid off. “I knew I had to be just focused and go back to do what I used to do,” he said. “This training camp was a little bit different. I was training for strategy and things like that instead of trying to lose weight.”
Spence let it be known that he’s not sure who his next opponent will be, and that he wants to spend time on his ranch with his family. Manny Pacquiao, however, appears to be a potential foe.