Danny Garcia brushes off Lucas Matthysse question, Zab Judah mentioned for next fight

Those hoping for a Danny Garcia vs Lucas Matthysse fight might not get their wish, at least if Danny Garcia's early comments from last night's press conference are any indication.

Garcia (25-0, 16 KO) says repeatedly that he wants to fight all the best out there, and to boxing fans, that has little to do with titles held. Matthysse (32-2, 30 KO) is considered one of the best in the world at 140 right now, but Garcia isn't so sure:

"It would be a good fight, but how can you be one of the best when you have no titles? He has two losses. I take nothing away from him. He's a good fighter, but he's not like no world-class superstar or nothing. He's just a regular tough guy to me, I've seen them before."

There are two ways to take this.

• Garcia is just talking some trash, because that's what he does. This is entirely possible.
• Garcia is already sort of moving away from demands for a Matthysse fight, which given that there aren't really demands for Danny Garcia fights (as good as he's become), mean that he's possibly trying to squirm away from the best fight out there for him in terms of what people want to see.

I'm not saying Garcia's ducking Matthysse -- not yet, anyway. There's no pattern and it's just a comment made once. But it's worth noting for now that he's not committed to the idea, either, and doesn't seem enthusiastic about it or anything. Could be nothing. Could be something.

Another name brought up last night was Zab Judah:

Also, Schaefer says good chance we get @superjudah- @dannyswift Garcia. Great east coast fight.

— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) October 21, 2012

It might be a great east coast fight, I guess, but Mike is also a big Judah fan, as I recall, and those folks tend to go wild in their imaginations about who Zab Judah is. Personally, I think it's predictable (Judah finds a way out when Garcia doesn't allow for Zab to have his way all the time), and I don't think Judah is really that big a star anymore that you can count on him to draw a crowd (he fought Vernon Paris in a tiny venue).

It's not that I don't like Garcia-Judah, really; Zab is fun to watch, meltdowns and all, and he can still fight, and in an ideal world, he'd gut through the tough spots and use his skills to give Garcia a different kind of test, but the fight to make is Garcia-Matthysse. That's the best fight in the division, they're both promoted by Golden Boy, and it should be a snap to make. Admittedly, finding a crowd for it isn't terribly easy, but that's what promoters are supposed to do: Find an audience. Golden Boy routinely fails to get people to pay their way into the building, so I kind of have a hard time buying that they're all that concerned with live draws anymore. If it looks good on TV, they seem happy, paid or not.

Anyway, Garcia will probably fight early next year, I'd guess late January or February, and there are plenty of fights to be made. And though I personally badly want to see Garcia-Matthysse, maybe you stick those two on a doubleheader first and hype the fight after they're seen together. You can do a lot worse than Garcia-Judah and Matthysse-TBA, even if it's not as good as Garcia-Matthysse straight off.

It also wouldn't be a huge shock, I don't think, to see Garcia at least glance north to 147 pounds and see if there's not a big money fight he can make there. Apparently, Victor Ortiz wants to fight him, and I still don't think you can totally count out Floyd Mayweather if Mayweather decides to fight again. There aren't that many Floyd-worthy opponents out there, and Garcia's hot right now.