Showtime Fight Preview

Danny Garcia vs. Mauricio Herrera

On Saturday night in Bayamon, Puerto Rico Danny Garcia will be fighting in front of people he hopes will take him in as their own.  This will be Garcia's first fight in Puerto Rico.  He is from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania but both his parents are from Puerto Rico and Garcia hopes the island known for it's love of boxing shows him some of that love when he takes on Mauricio Herrera.  The two fighters are scheduled to go at it for 12 rounds in the welterweight division for Garcia's WBC & WBA titles.

Garcia won't be the underdog in this fight

Garcia isn't the type of fighter who you think would still be undefeated.  He doesn't have the quickest feet in the world and he gets touched up a little to much.  Garcia's defense isn't horrendous but his lack of head movement gets him caught upstairs, luckily he has one of the best chins in the business.  There is also an old saying in boxing that body punchers take a good body shot and Garcia certainly does that.  Offensively Garcia has a pretty good jab that he doesn't use as often as he should.  His best offensive weapon is his deadly left hook.  Garcia also has a good right hand and goes to the body very well with his right and left but it is his left hook that can end a fight with one punch.  However even if he doesn't knock his opponent out he can take enough out of them with his body attack to slow them down and punish them in the later rounds.

As far as records go they don't get much better than Garcia's.  His record is a perfect one at 27-0 with 16 knockouts and he has some big names on his resume.  Garcia has beaten Lucas Matthysse, Zab Judah, Amir Khan, and Erik Morales twice and while Judah and Morales were definitely past their primes when Garcia beat them Khan and Matthysse were not.  Garcia came into his last fight against Mattyhsse as the underdog and impressed a lot of people when he was able to stand up to Mattyhsse power and drop him in the 11th round.  Herrera is certainly a step down from Matthysse but Garcia needs to be careful not to look past him.

Herrera is a good fighter with fast hands but he isn't in the same class as Garcia.  He moves a lot more than Garcia does and likes to pick his spots to throw combinations.  Herrera's jab is very good and he likes to throw it a lot, especially against pressure fighters.  He needs to make sure he uses that jab a lot against Garcia because he doesn't have much power at all.  One thing Herrera does have is a great chin.  He has taken punches from Ruslan Provodnikov, Mike Alvarado, and Karim Mayfield and has never gone down so it will be interesting to see how he handles Garcia's left hook.

Herrera needs to stick and move against Garcia

While Herrera isn't in the same level as Garcia he is still a good fighter.  His career record is 20-3 but he only has 7 knockouts so he needs to stay very active throughout the fight if he wants to beat Garcia.  Herrera does have a win over Provodnikov but lost his fights against Alvarado and Mayfield and those were the best fighters he has faced off against.  Garcia will be the toughest test of his career and he will enter the ring as a big underdog.  However if Herrera can pull off the upset he would not only win Garcia's titles but also earn another big fight.    

This fight could go one of two ways.  Either Garcia is going to run through Herrera or Herrera will be able to move enough to give fans a pretty good show.  Herrera has experience against heavy hitting pressure fighters so the moment shouldn't be to big for him.  He will need to work his jab early and often and not let Garcia sit down on his punches.  Garcia is a patient fighter and should be fine even if he gives a few early rounds away as he waits to land a knockout blow.  Hopefully Herrera can be good enough to make it a real fight and not just a showcase for Garcia.

PREDICTION: Mauricio Herrera is a tough fighter with a good chin so it won't be easy for Danny Garcia to knock him out and I don't think he will.  Garcia is going to win this fight by the way of unanimous decision in a better bout than most people expected.

Deontay Wilder vs. Malik Scott

The co-feature on Saturday could be very significant.  The reason for that is because it features two American heavyweight prospects, one of whom owns an Olympic Bronze medal and some serious power.  That fighter is Deontay Wilder and he will be fighting Malik Scott in a 12 round WBC heavyweight title eliminator.

Wilder puts every opponent to sleep

Wilder is an absolute killer when he enters the ring.  He is one of the biggest punchers that the heavyweight division has seen in some time and he also has some boxing skills to go along with that power.  He has a pretty good jab that he likes to use often to set up his cinder block of a right hand.  Actually Wilder has very good power in both hands.  While his power can't be questioned his chin and defense can.  Wilder fights with his hands low and while he hasn't paid for it yet he might as he steps up his level of competition.  In his last fight he got buzzed by a jab from Nicolai Firtha but that was really because he came out showboating a little and might have been slightly off balance.  Against better fighters Wilder will need to be sharper defensively.

Wilder goes by the nickname "The Bronze Bomber" but he might as well be called "The Great Unknown."  That is because while his record is a stellar 30-0 with an unreal 30 knockouts they have all come against journeymen and tomato cans.  It remains to be seen if Wilder is really that talented or if he has just been protected by his promoter and manager.  After Firtha buzzed him people started to question his chin and that may be why he hasn't yet faced a solid fighter.  His chin may not be good enough to really compete at the higher levels of the heavyweight division and that is why his team has protected him.  On the other hand they may realize they have the next American heavyweight star and are trying to build his record and appeal before they put him in the ring with the big dogs.  This fight against Scott will be the toughest of his career and should answer any lingering questions about his talent.

Scott is an athletic fighter with a good jab he likes to stick to the body.  His defense is much more polished than Wilder's and he fights behind a high guard.  However he still has some noticeable defensive flaws.  He has a tendency to drop his right hand when he throws his left hook and since he fights with his left hand very low he is left wide open when he throws the right hand.  Scott isn't a very busy fighter and usually tries to sit back and counter his opponents.  Scott's best punch is probably his left hook and he throws it very well to the body.  Against a power puncher like Wilder, Scott will need to really stay focused defensively.

Scott has a big advantage as far as experience

While Wilder has never really fought anyone worth noting, Scott has.  Scott has never taken on the top of the heavyweight division but he has had fights against Vyacheslav "Czar" Glazkov and Derek Chisora, however those fights happen to be the only blemishes on his record.  He fought to a draw against Glazkov and was stopped by Chisora.  Scott's career record is 36-1-1 but he only has 13 knockouts.  It may not be a good sign that he was stopped in his only career loss because he is facing off against a fighter who has done nothing but knock dudes out.

There is little doubt that Scott is a solid fighter but most people will be tuning it to see if Wilder is the real deal or just another hyped pretender.  Scott will be the toughest test of Wilder's career so far and if Wilder looks as impressive as he usually does he would certainly take an even bigger step up in his next bout.  Scott may not have the power necessary to check Wilder's chin be he does have the experience to make him put in some real work.  Scott is coming into the ring to win so fans should get a good showing.  If Wilder wins this fight in impressive fashion there will be a lot of fans back home getting very excited as the prospect of having an American heavyweight champion once again.

PREDICTION: Malik Scott's defense may be sharper than Deontay Wilder's but he still has some flaws and they will let him down in this fight.  Wilder also has flaws but Scott doesn't have the power to make him pay for them.  Wilder is going to win this fight in spectacular fashion with a 6th round knockout when he catches Scott dropping his hands.