Angel Garcia, Mayweather Tarnished What Should've Been Good Week for Boxing

By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – This should’ve been a completely positive week for boxing, a time for those involved in this heavily scrutinized sport to feel more optimistic than usual about its immediate future.

Last Saturday’s card at Barclays Center included a highly competitive, fun fight between super middleweight champions James DeGale and Badou Jack, a star-making performance from 22-year-old super featherweight Gervonta Davis in the first fight Showtime televised and an unbelievable back-and-forth brawl between unbeaten middleweight prospects Immanuwel Aleem and Ievgen Khytrov.

Four days later, right back at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center, came the long-awaited announcement of one of the most anticipated fights on the 2017 boxing calendar, a March 4 welterweight unification fight that’ll pit Philadelphia’s Danny Garcia (33-0, 19 KOs), the WBC world 147-pound champion, against Keith Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs), the WBA world welterweight champion from Clearwater, Florida.

Even better, it was revealed that the Thurman-Garcia fight will air on CBS, live on free TV. That means this can’t-miss matchup between unbeaten 147-pound champions will be made available to the largest viewing audience possible, an important component in rebuilding this niche sport’s shrunken fan base.

Together, the events of last Saturday night and Wednesday afternoon should’ve represented what’s right about boxing.

The best fighting the best. Courageous champions getting off the canvas to keep fighting ferociously for their legacies.

A talented, young contender proving that he can thrive at the elite level by beating an undefeated champion. Bringing boxing back to free TV on a Saturday night.

Unfortunately, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Angel Garcia tarnished those moments.

Garcia’s disgraceful behavior during the Thurman-Garcia press conference cannot be tolerated by the New York State Athletic Commission, which has the jurisdiction to fine and/or suspend Danny Garcia’s foul-mouthed father/trainer. However the NYSAC handles him, the “that’s just Angel being Angel” defense from virtually everyone involved in the event, most notably Danny Garcia, is utterly unacceptable.

Whether it’s partially an act, or Angel Garcia truthfully is that classless and “crazy,” those involved in Thurman-Garcia cannot enable a prominent participant in this high-profile promotion to behave so disgustingly, without the volatile trainer suffering any consequences. Boxing commissions or better yet, Premier Boxing Champions founder Al Haymon, should’ve shut down Angel Garcia’s nonsense long ago, but better late than never.

Mayweather, meanwhile, might not have caused the controversy Garcia generated by screaming homophobic and racial slurs before trying to physically attack Thurman during their press conference.

However, Mayweather’s comments about the DeGale-Jack judging in some ways could do more harm to the sport’s perpetually damaged image than Angel Garcia’s disturbing tirade. The retired superstar suggested during the DeGale-Jack post-fight press conference that there must’ve been some sort of conspiracy among judges because they scored the super middleweight title unification fight a majority draw.

Mayweather’s company promotes Jack, who Mayweather feels won their 12-round fight decisively.

“We just wanna be treated fair,” Mayweather said. “That’s all I ask. We just wanna be treated fair. I think these type of things are happening because of my flashy, flamboyant career. Or somebody must be paying these people under the table. Something is going on.

“And once again, I’m not saying they got paid under the table. But something is not right. This guy [DeGale] was missing so many god damn shots. He was fighting in spurts. Badou Jack was pressing [the] attack. Body shots. Uppercut, head shot, left hook. And then the guy throw one combination through the whole round.”

As perhaps the most prominent person in boxing, it’s irresponsible for Mayweather to say something, without any proof whatsoever, that jeopardized the integrity of a fight his company promoted. And adding that you’re not accusing anyone of getting paid under the table when that’s exactly what you implied in the previous sentence doesn’t excuse your allegation.

No matter how much Mayweather complains, DeGale-Jack was a close fight and was scored as such.

Two judges, Julie Lederman and Steve Weisfeld, scored their 12-rounder even (113-113). Glenn Feldman scored the fight for DeGale, 114-112.

Weisfeld might be boxing’s most consistently accurate judge. Lederman, the daughter of HBO’s Harold Lederman, regularly scores fights correctly, too.

DeGale faded during the second half of the bout, but scored a first-round knockdown and was effective enough throughout the first half of the fight that a draw didn’t seem like an unjust decision.

Unofficial CompuBox statistics credited Jack with landing more overall punches than DeGale (231-of-745 to 172-of-617). Jack, who floored DeGale in the 12th round and nearly stopped him, connected on more power punches (202-of-522 to 168-of-468) and more jabs (29-of-223 to 4-of-149).

The fight clearly was closer than the Jack-Lucian Bute bout, which also resulted in a majority draw.

Sweden’s Jack (20-1-3, 12 KOs) did more than enough to beat Bute on April 30 in Washington, D.C., but only one judge scored that fight for Jack (117-111, 114-114, 114-114). For Mayweather to claim the DeGale-Jack decision was as bad as Jack’s draw with Bute just isn’t accurate.

The Jack-DeGale draw isn’t comparable, either, to one judge scoring the one-sided Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez fight a draw, as the undefeated five-division champion claimed.

Regardless, if Mayweather is completely convinced something shady occurred January 14 at Barclays Center, who’s to blame? Who, exactly, paid judges to score the fight for London’s DeGale?

Remember, DeGale is managed by Haymon, the mastermind behind Mayweather making nearly $300 million for fighting Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather obviously didn’t imply Haymon is involved in Mayweather’s conspiracy theory, but Haymon is one of the people that’ll benefit from DeGale (23-1-1, 14 KOs) not losing to Jack.

It’s one thing for Mayweather to voice his displeasure because his fighter wasn’t declared the winner. Emotion sometimes clouds judgment in the immediate aftermath of a close, tough fight.

It’s another thing entirely, though, to make baseless claims against no one specifically and destroy the credibility of an entire event. As one of the most influential figures in boxing, Mayweather must realize with his powerful position comes great responsibility.

Mayweather has raised valid questions about placing age limits on judges to help ensure fights are scored correctly. And there are times, obviously, when horrendous judging ruins a fight and understandably causes controversy.

This just wasn’t one of those instances. If he is to be taken seriously as a promoter committed to the best overall interests of the sport, Mayweather must be able to tell the difference.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.