Boxing is a business and more than the glory and recognition for an individual boxer is the need to earn a living and earn enough money to secure retirement. However as boxing fans we expect the best boxers to fight the best and in doing just that the world champion fighters to be worthy title holders.
The WBA/ WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia (29-0, 17 KOs) has recently been dubbed by the fight fans as the most “protected” world champion fighter in the world that basically means he is not willing to take on the top fighters in his division but rather take easy win fights. This is certainly the case for Garcia since his knockout win against British Amir Khan that was his most intriguing fight to date.
On April 11th 2015 Garcia will be facing his boxing rival IBF world champion Lamont Paterson (33-2-1, 17 KOs) in a catch weight contest of 143 pounds at the world renowned Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York.
The boxing bout is scheduled for only 10 rounds and many experts believe that this has been purposely done to make sure Garcia does not tire and look bad in a normal 12 round contest.
Garcia last fight was against the little known Rod Salka and that contest was also at a catch weight of 143 pounds, but Garcia managed to knockout the limited Salka early in the fight.
Garcia prior to the Salka win fought little known but surprisingly tough Mauricio Herrera over 12 competitive rounds and many people had thought Garcia had lost the contest as he was clearly being beaten in nearly every round by Herrera. However Garcia was given the 12 round decision in that fight that was a very controversial.
Paterson himself seems to be well past his best and the fight against Garcia seems to have come too late for both of them to make this an interesting contest. Paterson was knocked out by Lucas Matthysse in one his previous fights and other than a win against Amir Khan Paterson has (like Garcia) fought limited opposition.
Garcia takes on Paterson after paying his mandatory challenger Viktor Postol (26-0, 26 KOs) a step aside fee as it was likely Postol would have given Garcia a much tougher fight.
The Garcia vs Paterson fight is also a non-title contest that means neither fighter has their world title on the line and the loser of this fight will still get to keep their world champion status.
The reason for this contest being fought at a catch weight is because Garcia said he wants to make slow, but progressive steps towards the 147lbs weight limit (welterweight) from 140lbs (light welterweight) even though Garcia holds the 140lbs world titles.
Another observation of this fight being at the catch weight limit is that the winner of this bout may have a chance to fight “boxing kingpins” Floyd Mayweather or Manny Pacquiao after their May 3rd mega fight.
I would personally like to see either Garcia or Paterson have a rematch against the much improved boxer Amir Khan even though I expect either fighter not take such a risky fight against Khan based on their previous lack of opposition.
The Garcia vs Paterson fight in my view is a dull fight to say the least and the fact that it is being fought at a catch weight with no world titles on the line makes it even less reason to be excited about this match up.
