One might have expected a conference call featuring Danny Garcia and Zab Judah to devolve into a word war, a violent tennis match of insults and threats such as we saw when the Brooklyner Judah became insulted by Garcia's father/trainer Angel Garcia during a Dec. 1 presser in NYC, and the two crews almost brawled.
But the call didn't deteriorate into a too-passionate showcase of cojones, likely because Mr. Garcia, an excitable provocateur who has succeeded in spicing up most of his son's recent promotions with inflammatory trash-talking, didn't take part.
"Zab is a four-round fighter," said Angel Garcia on Dec. 1, "and Danny's going to knock him out in four rounds."
"ICU doesn't discriminate on any patients," said Judah in response, following up with some off-color words and implying that Team Garcia would have a hard time making it back to Philly without getting touched up. But things simmered down and the event proceeded. The bout didn't, though, because Garcia hurt his ribs in training, so the Feb. 9 date got moved to April 27, at Barclays Center.
On a conference call to bang the drums for the Golden Boy card, which will be televised on Showtime, Judah and the unified junior lightweight champ Garcia played nice, while middleweights Peter Quillin, the WBO champ, and Fernando Guerrero got heated.
Things started sedately. The Dominican-born Guerrero (25-1, age 26; a left-hander) talked about his celeb status in his home base, Salisbury, Maryland. "From my hometown, there's only one person that came out of there and did something, that was the girl from 'Terminator,'" he said, referencing Linda Hamilton. "[The Dominican Republic is a small country] and we're coming up. Back in the day people didn't understand when I tried to tell them the only person that I had to look up to was Sammy Sosa. But they're like, 'Oh, he's not from boxing.' I was like, yeah, but that's my idol. I want to be the Sammy Sosa of boxing."
Things started to turn when Quillin (28-0, age 29; lives in NYC, trains in L.A.) delved into his ethnic pride. "I have my own reasons why I should be doing what I'm doing," he said. "A lot of Cubans back in Cuba, they sit on the beach and it's a sad thing to watch. People just want to get out of that country and fight for opportunity. So, me doing this, it's more than just like for Cuba and my father, who came over here with just a pair of pants and a shirt with no shoes on and come over here to make a ..."
Guerrero interrupted, they engaged in cross talk, and Quillin got more pointed. "You will not beat me April 27th," he said. "The only thing you're going to know how to do is run back in that hole like you did with Grady Brewer. You know how to lose."
There isn't huge buzz over this fight, as Guerrero isn't a buzz-y fighter, but this faceoff could well steal the show in Brooklyn.