I like to make fun of Danny, I have nothing against him personally, he's got a pretty nondescript personality that's hard to like or dislike, and I don't really give a shit about his dad. Doesn't affect my opinion of Danny at all.
First off I'll say he really does have a good resume of names. That is true. As PUO said, Danny has a weird style that's hard to gauge but it's effective nonetheless which is all that matters.
That being said, let's take a look at his resume since he fought Matthysse years ago. He has had some opponents/performances that he deserves some criticism for. His fight after Matthysse was against Herrera, a journeyman who he barely scraped by, some even think he lost that fight. Not a good look. Then the notorious Salka fight which was a gross mismatch and again he deserved criticism for. That was a terrible mismatch, contrary to what some will say, there's no excuse, imo, for a fighter considered to be the best guy at 140 to fight Rod fuckin Salka.
That compounded with his less than stellar performance against a journeyman the fight before deserves some criticism. Not a good couple of fights after that great win over Matthysse. Then Danny goes on to fight a legit guy in Lamont, a good matchup on paper, one that doesn't deserve any shit from anybody. BUT he looks pretty beatable in that fight. Lamont started running which was annoying but did enough to make that fight razor close. Credit to Danny for getting the win but it's another fight that he barely scraped by with a win in and where he looked more than beatable in doing so. Some ppl actually thought he lost that fight as well. Not a great performance once again.
Who does he fight next? Well that would be the ricotta filled shell of Paulie Malignaggi, once again he gets the win, a stoppage, but we already knew that outcome b/c, once again, he's fighting a journeyman level opponent with glass hands and no power who happens to be way past his prime, which was never a great prime to begin with. Meh, deserves more criticism, imo.
You'd think Danny's on his way to taking on some real comp, some comp that could push him to show how good we all think he can be right? Nah, get Robert Guerrero in here, I'll fight him. He was good at onetime in his career, a name's a name. Let's see what level Robert Guerrero was at when Danny fought him: Two fights prior he was dominated and dropped by Thurman. Fine Thurman's legit right? Nothing wrong with that L. Who does Robert fight next? Aaron Martinez, another journeyman type guy who dropped Guerrero and a lot of ppl actually think he got a raw deal losing the split in the process.
So Danny comes in and Dec's him after Robert is obv damaged goods by now. Evidenced by the fact that he lost to an Argentine cab driver in his next fight, not exaggerating a real cab driver. The cab driver is pretty good tho, I actually won a bet on him for that fight b/c Guerrero was so washed by that time. Anyway Guerrero then went on to complete the losing trifecta by getting brutally stopped by Figueroa in 3rds then retired immediately after to go on to become the worst boxing commentator in the world. Congrats Robert, you suck at talking and suck the energy out of thousands of rooms across the world every time you jump on the mic!
So where are we, Danny then goes from beating mega washed Guerrero to FINALLY facing another premier level fighter, right? RIGHT? Not quite. Danny needs another tuneup after that other tuneup. Enter Samuel Vargas. Who? Me neither. Danny stops him. We get it, same shit different bag.
Then we do get that fight we've been waiting on for literally years. He goes up against Thurman, he loses a close fight. He puts in a very respectable performance, I bet on him b/c I knew the guy had talent all the way back to when he beat my guy Matthysse. That's we were all waiting for.
Danny moves on. By this point it would be a surprise if he fought anybody special b/c he has a proven history of fighting journeymen or washed names that are only recognizable b/c of their name that they made years ago, and w/o that name they wouldn't be sniffing high level fights, let alone actually getting those fights.
So we're not expecting anything special from Danny here, we know he fights to the level of his comp, we know he either doesn't really want to face the best guys that often or he just doesn't care enough. But we can always hope he steps it up a little bit coming off of a spirited performance against the highest level fighter in Thurman. So we're not expecting much but we're hoping we get something sort of interesting. Nah, it's Danny Garcia, he's gonna fight Brandon Rios. A man whose head is so scrambled you could order toast and coffee with it and have yourself a meal. Great ko from Danny, weak opponent. We knew he was gonna win, cool finish, still meh. A big meh.
Just to reiterate: Md over Herrera. Brutally stops Salka the Great. Md over a game and very respectable opponent in Lamont, a fight Danny looked pretty bad in tho, it needs to be said. Stops what used to be a guy named Paulie. UD's the ghost of Ghost Guerrero. Stops Fernando Vargas, nice, wait no SAMUEL Vargas, not so nice. Loses a sd to Thurman, respectable performance but he lost. Stops a mentally disabled person named Brandon.
So no I don't hate Danny Garcia. I don't even dislike Danny Garcia. I couldn't give less of a fuck about his crazy Pops. I just want to see a guy with talent at least look for fights against the best. But Danny seems like he either doesn't care or doesn't want to do that. I would go so far as to say most of the guys who criticize Danny don't ''hate" him we just like to bust his balls b/c he's been so disappointing with his opponent choices and performances against some of those opponents. It's funny b/c he KEEPS doing it too.
It's become kind of a joke now, I wish the guy would step it up or retire rather than taking these paychecks for fights that are already foregone conclusions. 147 is full of talented fighters, Danny's one of them. Fight another guy with talent or don't fight at all. Stop wasting my time. It's funny it's annoying, it is what it is. I don't hate the guy but I'm not gonna give him a pass, either. This isn't picking apart his record, it's pretty straightforward, we've all witnessed it. He's very good very talented but there's no excuse for him wasting his time and everyone else's. /rant.
