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Photo by Seth Wenig/AP
Fortunately neither Lamont Peterson nor Danny Garcia are taking each other lightly, though each man is feeling equally confident. This hopefully means that each of them is coming to the ring feeling their best. So no matter the outcome of the fight, there will be no excuses.
“I feel good, I feel strong. I’m making my way up to 147 a little bit at a time. I’m ready to go,” Garcia said at his open media day workout.
Garcia’s father and trainer, Angel Garcia echoes Danny’s response, insisting that they haven’t changed much in the camp to prepare. As far as Peterson goes, when asked to rank him on a scale of one to 10, Angel had a snarky, but predictable response.
“What can I say? Zero,” he said, followed by laughter. “I can’t rank him because he hasn’t fought Danny.” All jokes aside, he gave Peterson some politically correct “respect” for “putting the gloves on.”
Garcia is confident in his ability to win, and what he has to do to secure that victory. “I have to be smart in the ring. I have to go in there and be Danny Garcia. I’m here because I’m a smart fighter. Everyone knows that. I have power. I’m going to find my opening and capitalize on his mistakes,” said Garcia.
Without sharing too much intel, Peterson assured us during his media day workout he would avoid the mistakes other fighters have made in the ring with Garcia. “We have a plan to stop [the countering] and be able to get to the fight I want to fight.”
One controversy surrounding the fight is the catch weight at 143 pounds. Many speculate this was a strategic movie by Garcia’s camp to make a fight without putting his belts on the line at 140.
Peterson explained his take on the catch weight demand made by Garcia’s team:
[otw_shortcode_quote border=”bordered” border_style=”bordered”]“I’d rather have had it at 147. I mean, if we’re going to do 143, we might as well have gone up to welterweight and fought there. I didn’t understand it but I wasn’t going to complain about it…I didn’t want to not make the fight happen.”[/otw_shortcode_quote]
Though it certainly is suspect the fight was made at a catch weight, Peterson is right in that the most important thing is the fight is finally happening. Peterson exudes quiet confidence about getting a victory on Saturday, despite the less than ideal weight requirement. Maybe Garcia didn’t want to risk putting his belts on the line, but if he is as confident as he claims, it shouldn’t be an issue for him.
