By: Hans Themistode
Danny Garcia is still licking his wounds courtesy of Errol Spence Jr. The two faced off on a FOX Pay-Per-View event in early December of 2020. On the night, Garcia was thoroughly outboxed and outgunned as the Dallas native proved to be far too much.
For Garcia, the loss to Spence Jr. represented the third of both his career and his 147-pound tenure. After desperately wanting to pick up a signature win in the weight class, Garcia realizes that his dream of once again becoming a world champion more than likely won’t happen at the welterweight division.
Still, the Philadelphia product views his time spent in the weight class as an overwhelming success. Having won a world title against Robert Guerrero in 2016 and reigned for a little over a year, Garcia believes he’s checked off his welterweight to-do list. Now, the multiple division champion is ready to achieve the final goal in his near-decade and a half-long career.
“I feel like my next chapter in my career is at 154,” said Garcia during a recent interview with Eric Kelly on SouthBox Radio. “My goal in boxing was to be a three-division world champion. 140, 147 and 154. I fought everybody at 147 and 140. I thought I beat Thurman and I thought beat Porter and I had my opportunities to beat Spence. But, I feel like I did everything that I was supposed to do at 147, even though I didn’t unify the division like I wanted to, I still became champion.”
Somewhat controversial losses to the aforementioned Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter still haunt Garcia. In both instances, fans who tuned in to watch were split down the middle in terms of who they believed should have been given the nod.
With Garcia officially waving goodbye to the welterweight division, he doesn’t have an eye on anyone in particular in soon to be new home. With that said, he knows good and well that he will more than likely be at a weight disadvantage. To offset that, Garcia wants his opponents at his new weight class to be chosen wisely.
“Boxing is all about matchmaking. If you get the right matches at 154 that’s all it’s about. I won’t go up and fight the biggest guy, I’ll do a couple of fights, break myself in then go for the gusto like I always do. Me and Thurman could fight at 54 too.”
While he admits that picking and choosing his opponents will be vital to his future success, Garcia views the move up in weight as a necessity. After spending the past five years squeezing his frame down to the 147 pound limit, Garcia now points to those tiring treadmill sessions as he attempted to peel off the final few pounds before a big fight.
Now, the Philadelphia product smiles as he views those days as being over.
“Sometimes losing all this weight doesn’t help you, it just drains you and stresses you out.”