Danny "Swift" Garcia (30-0, 17 KO) is officially making his run at the welterweight division. He takes on veteran and former 140- and 147-pound champion Paulie Malignaggi (33-6, 7 KO) in the feature fight of Saturday's Premier Boxing Champions event in Brooklyn, New York.
When: Saturday, August 1 at 9 p.m. ET
Where: Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: Watch ESPN
Ticket Info: Score Big
Garcia is undefeated, and he's coming off a long reign as the lineal junior welterweight champion, but few titleholders in the sport got less respect from the boxing community.
Despite wins over the likes of Amir Khan, Lucas Matthysse and Kendall Holt, Garcia has the reputation of a fighter who hasn't proved himself.
His recent matchmaking—this fight included—hasn't done much to quiet the critics.
“In the sport of boxing, you’re going to have your critics no matter what you do, so you might as well ignore them and focus on training hard and fighting to win,” Garcia said, per Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports. “I think I’ve proven what I can do. I go out and fight hard and win. And I do win."
Garcia does win, but many of the victories are viewed as empty triumphs. Quite honestly, if he beats a 34-year-old Malignaggi on Saturday—even in the Magic Man's hometown—Garcia won't earn a new legion of followers. Malignaggi is a smart, tough and well-known former champion, but his lack of power makes him a somewhat safe opponent for the sport's elite within the weight range.
Malignaggi hears the whispers, and in typical Magic Man form, he's outspoken and opinionated about the public perception of his career and this fight. He breaks down the matchup and why he chose to come back after a long layoff in this interview with Marcos Villegas for the Boxing
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The Ultimate Fighting Championship on Saturday returns to Brazil with a solid offering on pay-per-view. In the main event, budding superstar Ronda Rousey takes on the outspoken and outmatched Bethe Correia. There is no real sense in pretending this is anything other than a stay-busy fight for Rousey, whom the oddsmakers have pegged as a 15-to-1 favorite over the Brazilian. Correia is game and deserves credit for talking her way into the matchup, but this is not a competitive fight on paper.
The rest of the card is long on nostalgia and relatively short on relevant matchups. The co-headliner pits former light heavyweight champion Mauricio Rua against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira in a long-awaited rematch of the 2005 “Fight of the Year,” while Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira looks to put a positive stamp on the end of his career against giant Dutchman Stefan Struve. The highlight of the main card is undoubtedly the strawweight top contender matchup featuring debuting former World Series of Fighting champion Jessica Aguilar and Claudia Gadelha. An outstanding welterweight bout between Demian Maia and the quick-rising Neil Magny caps the preliminary card, but it includes little else of interest to anyone aside from the hardcore fan.
THE MATCHUP:
The first and only women’s bantamweight champion in UFC history looks to expand her rapidly growing profile to Brazil in a battle against Correia. Rousey has looked unstoppable in the UFC, finishing each of her five opponents inside the distance and barely breaking a sweat in the process. Cat Zingano and Alexis Davis, her last two opponents, lasted a combined 30 seconds. That is dominance on an epic scale. For her part, Correia has looked solid against non-elite opposition, taking a contentious fight against Julie Kedzie and then defeating Rousey training partners Jessamyn Duke and Shayna Baszler to secure her shot.
Rousey is huge for the division, an exceptional athlete and pathologically aggressive. She goes at her opponent from the opening bell, working behind a consistent jab and cross that serve to cover her forward movement and get her into a tie-up. The clinch is her wheelhouse, and once there, she blends together short uppercuts, knees and a bewildering variety of trips and throws into a seamless and devastating package. The armbar is her specialty, and when the fight hits the mat, she has an almost infinite array of setups and tricks to reach her favored submission. Vicious ground strikes and a limited but effective arsenal of passes complement the armbar and make her that much more effective.
The champion is far from flawless, however. Rousey is quite hittable as she works her way forward, rarely pulling her head off the centerline and relying on her toughness to absorb shots while punching her way into the clinch. Her footwork is solid but not outstanding. On the mat, she has a bad habit of giving up her back, particularly when utilizing the scarf-hold position she favors. Despite these potential problems, no opponent has survived long enough to really exploit them.
Correia is mostly a striker. She does her best work moving forward and whipping potent punching combinations interspersed with the occasional low kick. The Brazilian is a dedicated body puncher, particularly with a doubled or even tripled left hook, and she does an excellent job of mixing up her locations to confuse her opponent. Her pace is excellent, and when she smells blood, she swarms and relentlessly pours on combinations. While aggressiveness is her trademark, Correia has a few nice back-stepping counterpunches in her arsenal to dissuade opponents who try to pressure and take her out of her element. Like all MMA strikers, Correia needs strong defensive wrestling skills to enable her striking game, and she has them. Her balance on single-legs is excellent, she sprawls well and she defends trips and throws in the clinch with aplomb.
These are the positives. On the downside, Correia is not a great athlete. She is not particularly fleet of foot, her hand speed is also lacking and she does not pack much of a punch. Although she defends takedowns well, it is far too easy to walk her into the clinch against the fence, and she struggles to escape for minutes at a time.
