Most boxing observers seemed to believe that if anyone could threaten Floyd "Money" Mayweather's undefeated record, it was Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. The 23-year-old phenom was thoroughly outclassed, though, and while it's unlikely that anyone can measure up to Mayweather at this point, Danny Garcia should be next on his list.
With four fights and two years remaining on Mayweather's mega-deal with Showtime, he and his camp will be tasked with finding quality opponents. He seemed to have found one in the form of Alvarez, but the fight was never close despite the criminal 114-114 scorecard that has been such a huge topic of conversation in the days since the bout.
Mayweather could very easily ride out the rest of his career by facing fighters who pose no real threat, but even the supposed best boxers in the world don't seem to give him trouble. Mayweather is best off finding a fighter who can both challenge him a little bit and help him draw money, and Garcia is the best option in that regard.
Coincidentally, Garcia fought on Saturday's undercard, and it can be argued that he was just as impressive as Mayweather was. Garcia was actually viewed as an underdog against Argentinian star Lucas Matthysse, but the Philadelphia product retained his Light Welterweight Championships in a convincing unanimous-decision victory.
The 25-year-old Garcia is now 27-0, and it can be argued that his resume is far more impressive than Alvarez's. Not only did Garcia defeat Matthysse, but he also holds triumphs over Zab Judah, Amir Khan and Erik Morales. Khan is likely among the fighters on Mayweather's shortlist, but it is blatantly obvious that Garcia would pose a much stiffer challenge.
Mayweather is rarely at a loss for words, but after his destruction of Canelo he was very matter-of-fact about it on Twitter.
While it's impossible to know for sure what Mayweather is thinking, it almost seems as though he's begging for someone to step up and make him work for a victory. It remains to be seen if Garcia can be that guy, but of anyone within a few weight classes of Mayweather, Garcia has had the most recent success.
Since Garcia has fought on the undercard of Mayweather's bouts on a few different occasions, the negotiation process would probably go quite smoothly. Mayweather wants to make sure that Mayweather Promotions play a role in all of his fights, and it's likely that Garcia wouldn't have any problem with that.
Leading up to the Mayweather vs. Alvarez fight, plenty of pundits were calling for a rematch provided Alvarez put up a good fight. That simply wasn't the case, though, so a second fight between them is almost certainly off the table.
Another obvious name that has been bandied about is Manny Pacquiao. Boxing fans have clamored for Mayweather vs. Pacquiao for the past couple years, but the two sides have constantly failed to come to an agreement. Now that all of the momentum and all of the pull resides with Mayweather, there is no way that he or his camp will lessen their demands in terms of money and other stipulations.
Despite Pacquiao's recent losses to Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez, he is still Top Rank's prized fighter, and promoter Bob Arum won't kowtow to Mayweather by any means. Even though the drawing power would be immense, Mayweather told the Los Angeles Times' Lance Pugmire, "At this point, Manny Pacquiao is not in my plans."
The one issue standing between Mayweather vs. Garcia may be the weight class, as Garcia is currently fighting as a light welterweight, while Mayweather has shuttled between welterweight and light middleweight. If Mayweather goes back to welterweight and Garcia moves up one class, though, they can make it work.
There are obviously a ton of fighters who would love to step into the ring with Mayweather due to the fame and fortune that comes along with it, but very few are deserving. Mayweather certainly has his reasons for picking the opponents he does, but if he really wants to test himself against a true rising star in the sport, then Garcia is the way to go.
Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter
Read more Boxing news on BleacherReport.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment