A very telling fight card has just been announced for Saturday, August 9th, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Golden Boy Promotions, now led by its founder Oscar De La Hoya, is presenting a tripleheader that will be broadcast live by Showtime. Originally believed that newly crowned IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter would be making his second defense of his title against Brit Kell Brook o this date, that fight has not been finalized so it gave way to the main event of Philadelphia’s Danny “Swift” Garcia apparently defending his WBC and WBA light welterweight titles against virtually unknown Rod Salka while Lamont Peterson will defend his same weight class IBF belt against Edgar Santana and in what is believed to be the opening bout of the night, Daniel Jacobs will face never heard of Jarrod Fletcher for the WBA “regular” middleweight title.
Why is not at all that exciting card so telling?
For one, it says that one way or another Garcia will work with Golden Boy Promotions. Garcia, advised by one Al Haymon, either has a legally binding contract with Golden Boy Promotions or at least Haymon is still willing to have Garcia fight under the silhouette banner. Another revelation is that Showtime is still willing to give the date to the troubled company but that might be more of a move to appease Haymon than De La Hoya.
Now as far as the card is concerned, I guess quality control left the building along with Schaeffer.
Danny Garcia, who after his impressive win over Lucas Matthysse was awarded a gift against the scrappy Mauricio Herrera, is now awarded with a soft touch in Salka. The thirty-one year old from Bunola, Pennsylvania, will be stepping into the ring as a heavy underdog with a record of 19-3 with 3 wins within the distance. As of earlier this week, he was not ranked by the WBC or the WBA and is actually some kind of trinket champ for the World Boxing Council at lightweight, five pounds south of the light welterweight limit. No surprise that the WBC has already approved him as a viable challenger for Garcia. Salka losses have come to much to be desired Guillermo Sanchez, Dorin Spivey and Ricardo Alvarez, brother of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
Wasn’t the Herrera bout a voluntary defense?
At least Peterson’s opponent, Edgar Santana, can be thought of a good enough opponent for a tune up fight. Not necessarily for Showtime but out of the three fights, we need to pick our battles. Santana does own wins over Josesito Lopez and in his last fight he knocked out Michael Clark in one to capture the NABA 140lbs title.
After the WBA elevated their middleweight belt holder Gennady Golovkin to “super” status, it left the “regular” title vacant and thus not making money. In comes #4 ranked Daniel Jacobs against #2 ranked and international champion Jarrod Fletcher. At least Golden Boy made sure both fighters were ranked before making the fight. The Australian Fletcher will make his first foray in North America with the championship with only two other fights outside his native land down under. His last fight was in Monaco and his first fight out of Australia, his only loss via second round TKO to Billy Joe Saunders in England.
