On the undercard of Mayweather-Canelo at the MGM Grand last night, we were treated to a mouth-watering contest between light-welterweight rivals Danny Garcia and Lucas Matthysse, two of the hardest punchers in world boxing today. Despite Garcia being the unified champ and current 140lb king, not many people gave him a chance against the Argentinian who was in fantastic from going into this fight, stopping his previous six opponents in emphatic fashion, the last one being IBF world champ Lamont Peterson.
However, it was clear from the get-go that this was not going to be the type of fight that many people were predicting. We expected Garcia to fight fire with fire and start exchanging with Matthysse early on. This would have been a foolish thing to do and would have surely got hims sparked out in the first few rounds. Instead 'Swift' took the smart route and chose to showcase his underrated boxing skills and outclass Matthysse.
As the fight progressed, Garcia gained more and more momentum and started to look very comfortable in there. Of course, being in there with Matthysse, there were always going to be a few dangerous moments but he handled them well and remain composed. He even took some of Matthysse's best shots flush and came back instantly even stronger, showing us just how tough he is.
After nine rounds I had the 25-year old five rounds up so all he had to do was stay smart. Bu obviously, letting his Philadelphian heart shine through, he became more aggressive and unloaded with even bigger shots. This could have cost him in the 10th when Matthysse came out fast knowing he really had to score a KO. But again Garcia weathered the storm, came back stronger and even put Matthysse down in the 11th. The young star was deducted a point in the final round for a low blow but it was already clear at this point that he was well ahead. The two men were left trading massive blows for the final 10 seconds of an incredible fight in which Garcia put on an incredible performance. The judges all scored the fight in Garcia's favour: 114-112, 114-112 & 115-111. I scored it 116-111.
Garcia, now 27-0 with 16 KO's, finds himself in a fantastic position. He is coming off of an emphatic victory over a guy who was considered the most dangerous fighters in world boxing and more big fights look like a certainty in the near future. Matthysse was considered an animal going into this fight but Garcia tamed the beast and more than put him in his place. The WBA, WBC & Ring Magazine champ seems to get better every single time he steps up and is now surely close to becoming a pound-for-pound contender. A fight with P4P king and the highest paid athlete Floyd 'Money' Mayweather, who looked untouchable again last night against Canelo, could even be on the horizon. Danny 'Swift' Garcia stole the show.
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