Horacio Garcia given tips by Canelo for Carl Frampton fight

Boxingnews24.com

By Juan Flores: Horacio Garcia (33-3-1, 24 KOs) has been given tips by Mexican star Saul Canelo Alvarez for his fight this Saturday night against former 2 division world champion Carl Frampton at the SSE Arena in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Garcia, Canelo will be on hand to watch the 27-year-old Garcia compete this Saturday night in Belfast against Frampton, who is a big favorite to win this fight. Frampton says he doesn’t care that Canelo will be there live, as his Irish fans will be there in large numbers to give him the support.

Since this is just a tune-up fight for the 30-year-old Frampton, it doesn’t matter if the entire crowd was fans of Garcia. Frampton still figures to win the fight and win quite easily. Garcia isn’t a highly ranked contender at featherweight.

Garcia isn’t ranked at all in the top 15 by any of the sanctioning bodies at featherweight. Frampton’s management is making sure there are no slipups for him in this return home to Belfast. It’s especially important that Frampton, #3 IBF, #3 WBA, not lose this fight, because he was beaten in his last fight by Leo Santa Cruz

”It’s great that ‘Canelo’ will be ringside – it will add even more of a buzz to what’s already one of Belfast’s biggest ever fight bills,” said Frampton. ”But as much as I respect ‘Canelo’, he won’t have much to cheer about. Garcia is a good fighter and I’m not taking him lightly, but I have to beat him and I won’t be distracted from the task at hand.”

Garcia was recently beaten by journeyman Diuhl Olguin (12-6-3) earlier this year in July in an 8 round unanimous decision loss. Garcia did come back to avenge the loss last September in stopping Olguin in the 4th round, but it wasn’t a good sign that Garcia lost to a fighter of that class in the first place. The fact that Garcia is losing to those types of fighters reflects on Frampton, who is really reaching down to lower level opposition to make sure he gets a win on Saturday.

Frampton’s loss to Leo Santa Cruz last January had to have been a really tough mental blow for him to have been out of the ring for almost the entire year since then. Frampton should have been back in the ring a long time ago.

If Frampton loses to Garcia or if even struggles to win, it might be time for him to start thinking about retirement from boxing. Frampton has looked poor in his last 4 fights against Leo Santa Cruz [x 2], Scott Quigg and the late Alejandro Gonzalez Jr. All 4 of those fights were very hard ones for Frampton. He almost lost to Quigg, and he deserved a defeat in his first fight with Santa Cruz. You can argue that Frampton’s true record in his last 4 fights should be 2-2 rather than 3-1. Frampton would have lost to Quigg if he had pressured hard in the first 6 rounds instead of the last 6 rounds.

Frampton fell apart entirely with the pressure that Quigg put on him. Frampton can’t take the pressure, and he struggles when forced to fight at a fast pace.

“I made everything right in camp, even Canelo saw me spar and train,” Said Garcia to Fight News. “He gave me a lot of advice for this fight. He said I looked very impressive during my training camp and that’s a motivation for me.”

If Garcia can pressure Frampton hard for the first 6 rounds, he might fade and be there for the taking in the last half of the fight. Frampton doesn’t have the stamina to fight a hard 12 round any longer. He gasses out and struggles.