Garcia vs. Benavidez Jr. Preview
A dynamic junior middleweight fight is going down in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center on Saturday July 30th. Former champion Danny Garcia will battle former title challenger Jose Benavidez Jr on Showtime.
Garcia (36-3, 21 KO) is coming off an unsuccessful challenge for the WBC and IBF title with a unanimous decision loss to champion Errol Spence Jr in December. Garcia is 3-3 in his last six fights, but the losses have come to current or former world champions.
The 34-year-old is a former two weight world champion having held the unified WBA (Super), WBC, and lineal light welterweight titles between 2012 and 2015, as well as the WBC welterweight title from 2016 to 2017.
The former champion believes he is going to show the world that he is ready to claim a title in a new weight class. “I’m excited to be back at Barclays Center,” said Garcia. “I can’t wait. I’m here to show the world that I’m ready for this weight class. I feel strong and I want to go in there and make a real statement.”
Garcia is ready to prove his critics including Benavidez wrong who say he is too small for the weight class. “He’s going to see what I bring into the ring on Saturday” Garcia said. “I’ve had the right sparring for this fight and I prepared perfectly. It was really a perfect camp.
“It’s not about weight, it’s about skill. You don’t become a three-time world champion because you’re just bigger. It’s about skill and technique and that’s what we bring to the table.”
The Philadelphian is not looking beyond Benavidez to bigger and better fights. “The only goal is to get this ‘W’ on Saturday, then we’ll start setting new goals,” Garcia said. “I expect Benavidez to come to fight, other than that, just expect me to do my thing.
“I’m going to be really strong on Saturday. This is a good weight class for me, especially at this point in my career. There’s a lot of good fighters in the division for me to fight.”
Garcia has key wins in his career over Brandon Rios, Samuel Vargas, Robert Guererro, Paulie Malignaggi, Lamont Peterson, Mauricio Herrera, Lucas Matthysse, Zab Judah, Erik Morales (twice), Amir Khan and Kendall Holt.
Benavidez (27-1-1, 18 KO) is coming off a majority draw in November against Francisco Emanuel Torres. The draw followed a TKO loss for the WBO welterweight title against pound for pound great Terence Crawford in 2018.
The 30-year-old believes a win over Garcia will put him back in contention for a title. “It’s going to be good,” Benavidez told Boxing Junkie. “It will put me back in the rankings, back on the top. If I beat Danny Garcia, people will say, ‘Oh, s—! He beat Danny Garcia!’ Danny Garcia fought [Errol] Spence, [Keith] Thurman, [Shawn] Porter, all these guys, and he did a good job.”
Is Benavidez looking for fireworks against Garcia? “People ask me, ‘Do you plan to knock him out’?” Benavidez said. “My answer to that is I’m going to put a hell of a fight on. I’m going to do what I used to do, my basics, go back to that, improve on that. … I’m not going to be throwing wild punches.
“Trust me, though: When I find those good punches, they’re going to hurt him. And I don’t know if he will be able to take them or not. This is going to be a good one.”
A win over Garcia will most certainly be the biggest of Benavidez’ career and it will be interesting to see what is next for the Californian. A loss will send him back further down the line of title contention in more than one weight class.
