Danny Garcia, the unbeaten lineal junior welterweight champion, will face Lamont Peterson, the IBF junior welterweight champion on Saturday night on network television as the featured bout of a Premier Boxing Champions card. The fight is being contested at a 143-pound catch weight, so no titles are on the line, but Garcia's future as an A-lister could be.
2014 was not kind to Garcia if it's judged on public opinion. After 2013 Garcia was hailed as one of boxing's brightest stars, overcoming the favored knockout artist Lucas Matthysse and then taking down veteran Zab Judah in Brooklyn.
Last year, Garcia struggled to get past journeyman Mauricio Herrera, then scored a brutal knockout over an unheralded lightweight, Rod Salka, that garnered him little favor.
"I heard it, but I try not to pay too much attention to some of the things that the media says, because regardless of what I do, I know I'm never going to win. So I win in the ring," Garcia said. "That's how I get back at the haters. I'm beginning to realize the more success you have, the more the haters are going to look at you."
Peterson is somewhat overlooked by boxing observers because he lacks knockout power. Garcia handled Matthysse in 2013, and Matthysse badly knocked out Peterson in the same year. Garcia is not treating those facts as the basis to take Peterson lightly on Saturday.
"I'm ready to make a statement with this (Peterson) fight, but I'm not ready to say because I beat [Matthysse] I'll have an easy time with Peterson," Garcia said.
"I know I have to go out there and dominate. I also know this is a different fighter and a different situation I'll be faced with. I'll be ready for whatever. If he wants to try and box, I'm just going to have to be a lion stalking him down. If he wants to fight, everybody knows I can do that, too. I can adjust to anything."
If Garcia wins, he is likely to abandon his 140-pound titles and move to welterweight, since this will be his second consecutive fight in which he's over the weight limit and his titles are not up for grabs. An impressive performance will likely land him a high-end opponent at 147 pounds right out of the gate.
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