BATB is hearing word that the WBA/WBO Light Welterweight title bout between champion Danny Garcia and former champ Zab Judah slated for Saturday, February 9 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY will be called off.
A source within the Garcia camp tells BATB that Garcia hurt his thumb in training.
If this is the case, that would be bad news for two Beltway Boxers who were to appear on the card. Salisbury, MD middleweight Fernando Guerrero was slated to challenge Peter Quillin for Quillin's WBO Middleweight title in the co-feature bout. Also, Temple Hills, MD super middleweight D'Mitrius Ballard was scheduled to make his pro debut on the card.
We'll have more on this as it develops.
Steve Kim is reporting that he’s hearing that WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia may back out of his February 9th fight against 35-year-old Zab Judah for an unspecified reason.
ReplyDeleteKim said on his twitter “I was told Garcia will pull out on Monday. Things change of course, but it’s what I was told by a reliable source.”
Judah has heard the news and he said this on his twitter to Danny “Wow, Danny Garcia, you backing out after all that talk? First ya’ll call the cops, now ya’ll back out of the fight.
Listen, Punk, be a man and take this a** whipping I got for you on February 9th. Danny Swift, stop trying to back out punk boy.”
If this turns out to be true then that’s a real buzzkill because I was looking forward to the fight even though I thought it was just another one of Golden Boy Promotions’ manufactured mismatches where they set up one of their champions with a faded lion to make him look good and get him a safe payday. But Garcia is flawed enough to actually lose to even someone like Judah. Garcia barely beat Kendall Holt in 2011, and he really didn’t start looking good until he was put in with a faded Erik Morales and the weak-chinned Amir Khan.
Judah might have clowned Garcia for all we know. Judah’s certainly fast enough and smart enough to avoid Garcia’s only real weapon in his arsenal, his left hook. Judah may be getting up there in age, but he knows how to avoid getting hit with left hooks.
Judah thinks Garcia got stage fright. Would Garcia back out of the fight because he was afraid of Judah? I don’t know, but I think it’s probably an injury or possibly the money not being right
Danny Garcia might be withdrawing from his upcoming bout with Zab Judah. Reports are the withdrawal will happen on Monday
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't a fight that set the world on fire when it was made, but Danny Garcia's title defense against Zab Judah was scheduled to go down in two weeks and Showtime had just poured significant time into promoting the bout on last night's Showtime Championship Boxing. Now, however, it looks like Garcia may be looking to pull out of the February 9 bout.
It started with some tweets from Mike Coppinger:
Showtime spent a good portion of last night's broadcast of Lucas Matthysse's destruction of Mike Dallas Jr. promoting Garcia vs Judah. Between talking to Zab, showing a hype video focused on the argument between Zab and the Garcia camp at the presser and even asking Matthysse directly after his win if Judah had a chance, they were really pushing the event as well as attempting to lay the groundwork for Matthysse to fight the winner.
Zab, as one would expect, was none too happy:
Would Guerrero still get an eventual title shot?
ReplyDeleteHell, why not add it to the show on the 22nd?
Unfortunately, not that easy, ACW. The Garcia-Judah card is a Golden Boy card. Chances are all those bouts would move to another GB card and not to a competing promoter.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the possible postponing of this card would cost Guerrero his title shot.
Mike Coppinger @MikeCoppinger
ReplyDeleteBREAKING: I've been advised by reliable sources that @DannySwift Garcia will withdraw from Feb. 9 @SHOsports bout vs Zab @superjudah #boxing
5:54 AM - 27 Jan 13 from Paradise, NV, United States
WBA/WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia is rumored to be pulling out of his fight this Monday with 35-year-old Zab Judah, according to Steve Kim of maxboxing.com. With Judah skewering him in messages on twitter late last night, the only thing Garcia could offer up was this brief comment: “I’m ready for whoever!”
ReplyDeleteThat doesn’t sound like a denial, does it? Boxing fans that were looking forward to the February 9th fight between Garcia and Judah are still hoping this is just a sick joke and that Garcia will choose to fight Judah as scheduled, but you have to wonder why Garcia didn’t confront the rumors head on last night when given the opportunity. Garcia’s usually vocal father, Angel Garcia, has been oddly quiet about the news of Garcia possibly pulling out of the fight.
You have to wonder about the timing of all of this. It’s coming directly after WBC interim light welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse blasted out Mike Dallas Jr. in the 1st round last night in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Some boxing fans feel that Danny night have seen how scary good Matthysse looked, and then remembered how Judah beat Matthysse several years ago, and maybe figured that it might not be wise to take the fight with Judah. Matthysse’s win over Dallas Jr. definitely makes Judah look like a much bigger threat to beating Danny than before.
We really haven’t seen Garcia take any risks recently with his two fights against a past his best Erik Morales, and him pulling out of a fight with Judah would seem like another move to avoid risks.
If Garcia pulled out of the Judah fight and then faces Matthysse, then you can give Garcia a pass because he’s pulling out of one fight to take on the arguably better fighter in Matthysse. But if Garcia pulls out of the Judah fight, and takes on a fringe contender or another aging veteran in a title milking type fight, then you have to wonder about what kind of champion Garcia’s going to be.
Gary did you get the Lamont Peterson email? I don't like the timing or the tone of the email. This could be a black Monday with the Garcia thing and potential bad news from Peterson.
ReplyDeleteI did. My speculation is that it may not be bad news from Peterson. My guess, again it is only a guess, is that Peterson may have signed a contract with Gary Shaw Promotions.
ReplyDeleteI say that based on absolutely nothing concrete, however. I would be surprised if there was a cancellation on the Peterson-Holt bout.