Fight Week: Danny Garcia to make debut at 154 against Jose Benavidez Jr.

FIGHT WEEK Two-division titleholder Danny Garcia will make his 154-pound debut against veteran Jose Benavidez Jr. at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. DANNY GARCIA (36-3, 21 KOS) VS. JOSE BENAVIDEZ JR. (27-1-1, 18 KOS) When : Saturday, July 30 …

FIGHT WEEK

Two-division titleholder Danny Garcia will make his 154-pound debut against veteran Jose Benavidez Jr. at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

DANNY GARCIA (36-3, 21 KOS) VS. JOSE BENAVIDEZ JR. (27-1-1, 18 KOS)

  • When: Saturday, July 30
  • Time: 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT (main event later in show)
  • Where: Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York
  • TV/Stream: Showtime
  • Division: Junior middleweight (154 pounds)
  • Rounds: 12
  • At stake: No major titles
  • Pound-for-pound ranking: None
  • Odds: NA
  • Also on the card: Adam Kownacki vs. Ali Eren Demirezen, heavyweights; Gary Antuanne Russell vs. Rances Barthelemy, junior welterweights; Sergiy Derevyanchenko vs. Joshua Conley, middleweights; Vito Mielnicki Jr. vs. Joe Eli Hernandez, welterweights
  • Prediction: Garcia UD
  • Background: Danny Garcia, a former titleholder at 140 and 147 pounds, will be making his debut at 154 in a quest to win a belt in a third division. The 34-year-old boxer-puncher from Philadelphia was unbeaten at 140 and won a world title at 147 but suffered all three of his losses in title fights at the latter weight, to Keith Thurman (SD), Shawn Porter (UD) and Errol Spence Jr. (UD). The Spence fight took place in December 2020, meaning Garcia will have been out of the ring for 19 months when he faces Benavidez. The older brother of super middleweight David Benavidez was able to resume his career after he was shot in the leg in 2016 but has fought only four times since the incident. That included a spirited effort in defeat in 2018 against welterweight champion Terence Crawford, who stopped him in the 12th and final round. The 30-year-old from Phoenix went three years without fighting after that setback, finally stepping back into the ring last November against Francisco Torres in a middleweight bout. He and Torres fought to a draw.

 

ALSO FIGHTING THIS WEEK

THURSDAY

  • Jousce Gonzalez vs. Jose Angulo, lightweights, Indio, California (DAZN).

FRIDAY

  • Yesenia Gomez vs,. Kim Clavel, junior flyweights (for Gomez’s WBC title), Montreal (No U.S. TV).
  • Amilcar Vidal vs. Gabriel Omar Diaz, middleweights, Montevideo, Uruguay (EstrellaTV).
  • Julian Rodriguez vs. Jeremy Mclaurin, welterweights, East Rutherford, New Jersey (BXNG TV).

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