Danny Garcia vs. Lamont Peterson: Head-to-Toe Breakdown for Both Fighters
One of boxing’s most hotly anticipated fights is coming to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
ESPN.com senior boxing writer Dan Rafael confirmed on Thursday that unified junior welterweight champion Danny Garcia will meet fellow 140-pound titlist Lamont Peterson in a non-title bout scheduled for 10 rounds on April 11.
The fight will be telecast in prime time by NBC as part of Al Haymon’s new Premier Boxing Champions series and will take place at a catchweight of 143 pounds, according to Rafael, “for no apparent reason.”
Garcia is badly in need of the boost a network TV slot will provide him. He emerged as one of boxing’s top young stars but had a difficult 2014, defined by early struggles and a gross mismatch to close the year.
Peterson has won two straight fights since nearly being decapitated by Lucas Matthysse in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 2013. This will be the biggest fight of his professional career and a can’t-miss opportunity.
So let’s get the ball rolling early.
This is your head-to-toe breakdown of Garcia vs. Peterson!
Fight Info
1 of 8
Main Event: Danny Garcia vs. Lamont Peterson; 10 rounds, non-title, catchweight of 143 pounds
Where: Barclays Center; Brooklyn, New York
When: April 11, 2015
TV: NBC
The Fighters
2 of 8
All stats and information per BoxRec.com.
| Danny Garcia | Lamont Peterson | |
| Record | 29-0, 17 KO | 33-2-1, 17 KO |
| Age | 26* | 31 |
| Height | 5'8.5" | 5'9" |
| Weight | 141.75 lbs (last fight) | 140 lbs (last fight) |
| Reach | 68.5" | 72" |
| Stance | Orthodox | Orthodox |
| Hometown | Philadelphia | Washington, D.C. |
| Rounds | 166 | 240 |
| Last Fight | KO 2 Rod Salka (Aug. 9, 2014) | TKO 10 Edgar Santana (Aug. 9, 2014) |
*Garcia will be 27 years old on fight night.
What You Need to Know
3 of 8
Garcia
Garcia burst on the scene with an upset knockout of Amir Khan to win a pair of junior welterweight belts in the summer of 2012. He consolidated his hold on the division with a pair of wins over aging veterans—Erik Morales and Zab Judah—before beating back the challenge of Matthysse on the Floyd Mayweather vs. Canelo Alvarez undercard.
The 26-year-old fell back to earth a bit in 2014 because of a controversial decision and a woefully overmatched opponent.
Garcia went in March to Puerto Rico, the ancestral homeland of his parents, escaping the island with a controversial decision over Mauricio Herrera in a fight some felt he lost. His second-round knockout of Rod Salka in August—a fighter so overmatched that the sanctioning bodies refused to sanction the mismatch as a title fight—did nothing to help his case.
He needs a big performance here, despite being undefeated, to get back on track.
Peterson
Peterson also defeated Khan to capture a share of the 140-pound title, but his victory was more controversial. Everything from questionable officiating—Khan was deducted two points for pushing—and testing positive for a banned substance prior to the rematch left a bad taste.
He rebounded with a win over Kendall Holt before getting torpedoed by Matthysse on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. But he's looked sharp in his last two contests, showing the type of aggressiveness and speed that make him a dangerous foe.
Peterson has been clamoring for this fight for quite a while now, and this is his big opportunity at mainstream stardom. No easy opponent stands in his way, but you can be sure he'll be prepared for this chance.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
Boxing Ability
4 of 8
Garcia
Garcia is one of the finest examples of a complete fighter you'll find in the sport today. He's calm and patient in the ring, mixing his punches well both upstairs and downstairs and setting up his power shots. Everything he does is good, if not great.
He does a good job of transitioning from offense to defense seamlessly, making him hard to attack.
Garcia is a master at setting up his offense. He doesn't rush in and get reckless, choosing instead to send out feelers to probe his opponent's guard and find a weakness. Once he finds one, he exploits it.
Peterson
Peterson is a highly competent boxer who is content to stay at a comfortable distance and control the fight with his long left jab. His footwork is a huge asset, and he's been fighting at or near a world-class level long enough to develop a pretty good idea of how to win.
It's not the best game plan for him to get on the inside and grind away—he went with that against Matthysse with devastatingly bad results—but he's definitely willing to get dirty when necessary, and Garcia doesn't have the Argentine's concussive power.
Peterson can be a real handful when he's at his best.
Advantage
This is a pretty tough call, but Peterson is the better overall technical fighter. His movement is a little better, and he's the superior ring general.
Power
5 of 8
Garcia
Garcia has huge power in his left hook. He can put you on your back in a hurry if and when he connects with that shot. It's short and compact and almost always lands with precision.
What makes that punch so effective is that Garcia is smart about setting it up. He gets into positions and creates angles to maximize force, which makes him more powerful than his somewhat pedestrian 58-plus percent knockout ratio would indicate.
Peterson
Peterson isn't a big puncher, but sometimes he fights like he hasn't gotten that memo, and it costs him.
His left jab is a great weapon, and it has the necessary power to control the distance and keep aggressive fighters at bay. He's never going to be the type of puncher to wow you with the zing on his shots, but that's never been his style.
Advantage
Peterson has decent but unspectacular power.
Garcia, who knocked out Khan and floored Matthysse in a fight that most expected to end with him on the ground, gets the nod in the power department. His left hook is a murderous shot.
Defense
6 of 8
Garcia
Garcia transitions well from offense to defense, and that makes it tricky for an opponent to figure out when it's best to attack him. His shifts are fluid and don't leave him open in the way that many fighters are when they jump from attack to defense.
He's vulnerable to opponents who can keep him at the end of his shots, which, given past history, could play well into Peterson's hands.
Garcia can box effectively, but like his foe, he often finds his way into brawls that make him easier to hit than he needs to be.
Peterson
Peterson needs to be conscious of Garcia's left hook, or it could be lights out in a hurry.
He has a good set of whiskers and the wherewithal to shake off knockdowns well, but he sometimes makes things harder on himself. His stance is wide, which aids his fluid movement but often leaves him without good balance and open to getting caught.
Peterson is a much better boxer, when he's harder to hit, than a brawler, when he's much more exciting but also less elusive.
Advantage
Another 50-50 call. Both guys can be good defensively yet be lax and fall into choppy waters that could have been avoided. Garcia did a great job of neutralizing a devastating puncher like Matthysse, whereas Peterson got shellacked.
Those types of comparisons don't always work in boxing, but we'll go with Garcia as the slightly better defensive fighter.
Game Plan
7 of 8
Garcia
Garcia will need to control the tempo of the bout and prevent Peterson from seizing the initiative. He possesses the single biggest weapon in the fight, his big left hook, and he doesn't want to let Peterson do to him what Herrera did in Puerto Rico.
In that fight, the challenger came forward, controlled the initiative and pursued Garcia with attacks from all sorts of odd angles. A bit of body smacking should help him wear down his quicker opponent and make him easier to catch with hard shots.
Garcia needs to apply smart pressure, getting inside the range of the lengthier Peterson and cutting off the ring to prevent him from boxing effectively from the outside. The Philadelphian will be the more powerful, and possibly bigger, fighter on fight night, and he should fight like it.
Peterson
Peterson has a bad tendency to start fights slowly. In most cases that isn't a problem, but this fight is only scheduled for 10 rounds. That makes giving up even one of them a risky venture.
A fast start and his jab are the keys to this fight. He has a decent reach advantage over Garcia, and that should give him an edge with the fight on the outside. He needs to be forever conscious of his foe's game-changing left hook and use his jab to keep Garcia from setting.
Peterson is a slightly better technical fighter, but the margin for error is small. He needs to be firing on all cylinders, which means jabbing, moving and not taking any rounds off.
Early Prediction
8 of 8
This is just one of those 50-50 fights that could go either way.
It's the literal crapshoot.
But, with a genuine sense of conviction and a desire to ruffle some feathers, let's go with Peterson by something of a mild upset by split decision.
Garcia hasn't looked truly impressive against a world-class foe since he avoided Matthysse's power and beat him to the punch enough to win a clear decision in September 2013. Herrera, to these eyes, beat him, and Salka was so badly matched that the sanctioning organizations wouldn't even take money to validate that farce.
Peterson, albeit against similarly mismatched opposition in Edgar Santana and the unbeaten but unproven Dierry John, had a great bounceback year in 2014. He looked sharp with his punches, and his speed and footwork were still there. Plus, he has the type of style that could give Garcia another Herrera-like headache.
Would it be surprising to see Garcia win?
Absolutely not, and that's going to be the prevailing wisdom.
A lot will have to do with the impacts of the catchweight, but my gut says Peterson wins by a razor-thin margin.
Take it to the bank.
Just don't cash it.
Prediction: Peterson defeats Garcia (96-94)
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
