In what is
perhaps the best pure match-up of the “Believe It or Not” pay-per-view bill
from the Staples
Center in Los Angeles this Saturday
night, junior welterweights Kendall Holt and Danny Garcia square off in
a pivotal fight. For Garcia, this truly is a step-up bout. He has just begun
the process of moving up the ranks and after facing the likes of Ashley
Theophane, Mike Arnaoutis and most recently, Nate Campbell, Garcia now faces
his most dangerous threat thus far in a career that began in 2007.
For Holt,
this is old hat. He's been a pro now for a full decade, has been on the world-class
level since 2005 and has won and lost a major world title during that stretch.
You could say this fight for him is a step down of sorts but with the winner of
this bout put in position to land a title shot in the near future, Holt simply
can’t afford another loss on his ledger.
“This is just as big as a big fight. There's not many fights out there that get
bigger than this. This is for the number one spot in the world in one
organization. It's for the number two ranking in another organization. It's for
a regional championship in another organization,” Holt pointed out. Say what
you will about the sanctioning bodies but being ranked highly by them
absolutely matters. “I mean, this actually turned into a big fight and a big
opportunity. So I'm happy this came about.”
Holt, who
has faced the likes of David Diaz, Isaac Hlatshwayo, Arnaoutis, Ricardo Torres
(twice), Demetrius Hopkins and Tim Bradley, has been in the big leagues. Garcia
has more or less been developing at the Triple-A level. Did they make a mistake
in accepting this assignment?
Holt laughs
as he's asked that question, “I try not to think like that and at the same
time, Danny Garcia, he knows he has a big task in front of him. He has a
father there. Everybody is going to be pushing for him to be in shape. They're
going to study and watch tape. That gives me more motivation and inspiration in
my training because I know they're going to be there with their A-game and I'm
going to be on the tippy-top of my A-game. But stylistically, it's going to be
a nightmare for him.”
Many in the
boxing industry are surprised that Garcia's camp took this fight. Say what you
will about “Rated R” but the guy has speed and he can swat.
“I'm getting asked that question a lot,” admitted Holt, a native of Paterson,
New Jersey,” and I'm not surprised because it's only so much baby food you can
eat before you have to have a real man's meal. [Garcia] talked about wanting to
be the best in the world. He knows he has to face one of the best in the world
to be the best in the world. I commend him for taking this fight but it's the
wrong fight. It's the wrong opponent. It's the wrong time. It's awful.”
Can Garcia
go from Gerber to solid food? As Bernard Hopkins once famously said about a
young, up-and-coming David Reid, as a fight between them was discussed in the
late ‘90s- you don't feed steak to a baby. “I think he understands the leap
that he's taking to a certain extent because he has a world of confidence right
now. That's because Oscar De La Hoya and Al Haymon and Bernard Hopkins, they've
been feeding him guys. He's grown up on baby food. He has full-grown teeth and
they want to see what he can do,” Holt says of Garcia, who is handled by the
influential Haymon and Golden Boy Promotions.
Holt does
admit Garcia has solid tools to work with, “Absolutely, he has heavy hands. He
has decent speed. He's focused in there. He's determined. And with guys with
heavy hands, you can't force up on 'em. You can't get lazy in there. One shot could
change the fight around, so you can never count a puncher out. He's a puncher.
You can never count him out but he's an inexperienced puncher.”
Holt
believes the road he's traveled is a huge advantage.
“I've been
here before. I've done it. I've had a world title. I've been number one. I've
defended it. I've lost it. I've been in rough terrain,” he pointed out. Holt
hit his nadir last year as he was stopped in six by Kaizer Mabuza in what was
at best a token effort that February night in Atlantic
City. Holt, who has since bounced back this year with two quick KOs (of
Lenin Arroyo and Julio Diaz), says of that forgettable outing, “That's been a
million miles away since my first fight back this year.”
Holt turned
30 back in June, should still be in his physical prime and with names like
Bradley and Amir Khan moving up to 147 pounds, sooner rather than later, a
vacuum will materialize in the junior welterweight division. Holt believes he
will be the guy to fill that void.
“I think
I'm going to be the man at 140 again. I've been performing at the top level,
top five contender since 2005 when I beat David Diaz,” he stated. “I think I'm
going to be the man at 140. For how long? That's the question.”
Besides a
chin that has been vulnerable, Holt has top flight speed, power and quickness.
But for all his physical attributes, he has really been a hot-and-cold fighter
who has never performed all that consistently over the long haul. Holt is the
consummate boom-or-bust boxer. Can he finally become a reliable fighter?
“It's funny
you ask me that because I ask myself that,” he admits. “And now I have a
trainer who's been in my shoes before and I've asked him that. There's a couple
of things he told me that's been helping me get through that. It's basically
all been on me, mentally. Sometimes I get lazy on myself. Some nights I do the
bare minimum. Some nights I just want to go out there; I want to be the best.
So what I've been concentrating on doing is having that mentality to be the
best in my mind- everyday. Some days I get lazy in the gym or hurting, stuff
like that, but those are the times I put it in my mind I want to be the best
even more.”
Holt’s new
trainer is Buddy McGirt, no stranger to world championships at 140 pounds and
really, McGirt doesn't have to teach Holt how to fight. His job is really to
change his fighter’s approach and attitude toward his own skill set. “Because
he doesn't realize how good he really is,” said McGirt. “He's always done just
enough. Let me tell you something; when he finds out how good he really is,
when he finds himself, they're going to have trouble in the division.”
Holt says
of his relationship with his trainer, “I like to be able to sit down and pick
his brain, be able to talk to him and pick up a lot of confidence- because he
has a lot of confidence in me.” Also helping out is engaging in playful banter
with supreme trash talker James Toney, who he sees at the International Fight
Club gym in Van Nuys. McGirt's job is much more than of a technical
variety. In many respects, he has to be a psychologist and self-help motivator
to his boxer. The goal is to match Holt’s production to his potential. “You
gotta do everything if you care about your job as a trainer. You gotta put
everything together,” McGirt says of his role. “It can't be just one thing,
‘It's OK. Let's just do one thing beating these guys.’ No, you don't want to do
that. That's what makes guys like Bernard [Hopkins] such great fighters because
they find themselves. They take it to the next level."
McGirt believes
that truly great fighters don't necessarily compete with those put in front of
them but really themselves. Beyond that, they have unwavering self-confidence.
“Right, and they get to the next level because they have that faith. Kendall
will do a move on the bag and I'll say, ‘Man, do that again’ and he'll say,
‘What did I do?’ He don't even remember. When he's sparring, he'll do
something. I'll go, ‘Do that move again’ and he goes, ‘What did I do?’ I mean,
it just comes natural, so once he finds himself, puts it all together, they're
going to have trouble.”
Holt
believes he has one last run in him, insisting the best is yet to come.
“The one
thing I have going for me, I've never been beat up inside that squared circle,”
he pointed out. “Never been beat up and I consistently stay in the gym and I
consistently want to get better and want to improve. I want to be at the top. I
want to be at the top of the discussions in everyone's conversations when they
talk about 140-pounders. I want to be mentioned by HBO, be mentioned in the
blogs. I want people to believe in me and I'm going to give them a reason to.
“Because
I'm one of the best, I'm still a bright and shining star and come Saturday
October 15th at
the Staples
Center, I'm going to ride off worse than Kobe [Bryant] did.”
