If it was hooked only to that five-fight stretch of more than a decade ago, the case for Danny Garcia to be placed in the International Boxing Hall of Fame would be sound.
March 24, 2012: Unanimous-decision victory over Mexico’s Hall of Fame inductee Erik Morales; July 14, 2012: Fourth-round TKO of 2010 fight-of-the-year participant Amir Khan; Oct. 20, 2012: fourth-round knockout of Morales; April 27, 2013: unanimous-decision victory and eighth-round knockdown of Hall of Famer Zab Judah; Sept. 14, 2013: unanimous-decision victory and 11th-round knockdown of a prime Lucas Matthysse.
The Matthysse victory came on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Canelo Alvarez fight at MGM Grand, a scintillating showing by the Philadelphia product against an Argentian “Machine” who had stopped six consecutive opponents.
“He put him down, closed his eye,” former 140-pound champion Chris Algieri recalled of watching Garcia’s victory that night while discussing Garcia’s Hall of Fame position on Friday’s edition of “Top Stories” on ProBox TV.
Fittingly, with Alvarez again in the main-event spot exactly 11 years later as he defends his three super-middleweight belts against unbeaten WBA mandatory challenger Edgar Berlanga, Garcia (37-3, 21 KOs) skips a division to fight for the WBA middleweight belt worn by Cuba’s Erislandy Lara, 41.
Even though he’s younger, it’s Garcia, 36, who confronts questions of age and rust as he fights for just the second time in nearly four years.
“What is his motivation? Money? I’m not looking at his bank account, but I don’t think so,” Algieri said. “This is legacy. In (Garcia’s) own mind, he knows he’s on the cusp,” of being a Hall of Fame fighter. “He gets this win? That’s a lock.”
Friday’s show followed comments by veteran fight figure Leonard Ellerbe commenting that a Garcia victory clinches his Hall of Fame status.
Former welterweight champion Paulie Malignaggi, who was stopped by Garcia in the ninth round of a 2015 bout at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, said he believes Garcia is “probably there already,” reminding that Garcia is a two-division champion who was a unified champion at 140.
“The losses he’s got on his record (particularly the split-decision loss to Keith Thurman and narrow defeat to another welterweight champion, Shawn Porter) are close, competitive, controversial.
“Nobody’s ever been able to dominate Danny Garcia, although he’s dominated a lot of the top guys and won several times when he was the underdog; the Matthysse and Khan fights come to mind.”
Malignaggi showered Garcia with respect, noting he’s “constantly risen” to challenges while displaying “great character and a great chin.”
His lone convincing loss was a late 2020 defeat at the hands of then-unbeaten welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr.
“(Garcia) may not have the most optically pleasing style, but what he does is very effective. His unique style, taught by his father, Angel, his resume and the longevity of his career speak volumes … the Lara fight puts an exclamation point on it,” Malignaggi said.
Algieri reminded that Garcia escaped with dubious victories on the scorecards over Ashley Theophane (2010) and Mauricio Herrera (2014).
Garcia also earned scorn for fighting outmatched Rod Salka following the flat Herrera showing.
But Algieri said Garcia deserves his “flowers” for skipping a weight class and returning from his layoff to meet Lara, who’s coming off a second-round knockout of Michael Zerafa on March 30.
“He wins … guaranteed, he’s in the Hall of Fame,” Algieri said of Garcia. “That’s a lock.”
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