Angel Garcia: Boxing needs to get rid of these old horses

Trainer Angel Garcia gives his thoughts on why boxing needs to be a young man’s sport.

In this video interview caught by FightHub, the always animated trainer Angel Garcia talks about why boxing is a young man’s sport and why it should be more like MMA. The entire conversation kind of went all over the place so bear with me through this transcription...

“...It’s supposed to be two young ponies fight each other. It’s like you go to the racetrack, you go see an old horse win? You looking for the young ponies to bet on, the ponies, you don’t bet on old horses, my brother...Boxing needs to take all of the old horses out of the game, that they think they still got it.

“This is a young man’s game, you know what I’m saying. The younger the better. Listen, you see all them fights Showtime is doing. All these young prospects fighting each other — that’s good. We gotta do that in MMA too. We gotta stop all these guys that be on TV on the mics [bad mouthing] these fighters because they get a L. At the end of the day they still stars. Treat ‘em like stars!

“Don’t think because somebody walk away with a L that he became a less star...that’s what’s wrong with boxing. These guys sit behind these TV screens, that never fought in their life, never know what’s a punch in the mouth, and [bad mouth] these fighters instead of doing like MMA. Even if you win or lose, you still a star. Boxing needs that!”

Then, when the conversation switched to role models in the sport, Angel had this to say:

“Come on, man. How they saying [Muhammad] Ali was the best in the country or the world but Ali didn’t go to war? That might hurt me, what I said, but hey listen, the truth is the truth.”

The conversation then switched back to how boxing can change for the better and Angel suggested replacing most ringside TV commentators:

“Sometimes what happens when the people listen to TV they listen to the guy on the mic. So when he’s [bad mouthing] these guys down, and then he’s talking about the guy that he wants to win — it’s like if you listen to Danny when he was fighting [Lamont] Peterson. Sugar Ray Leonard was talking about ‘Did you see Peterson hit Danny Garcia with a big right hand!’ Come on, man, he’s from Washington D.C., bro! You know he’s gonna talk about Peterson all night...

“We need to stop the bullshit in boxing, change the shit...all these big TV channels, need to sit back and fire them! ‘Cause what’s happening is hurting [the networks] too. It’s hurting them as people that put boxing on TV, that the people don’t want to see [the fighters afterwards] ‘cause we done bashed them. And now you gotta look for another star instead of keeping that star.

“...all the presidents, CEO’s, whatever you call yourselves, sit back and fire these guys! And change the sport! Call me!”