Angel Garcia says Danny will 'destroy' Rod Salka on August 9

Angel Garcia, the father and trainer of junior welterweight world champion Danny Garcia, expects what most boxing fans and pundits expect to happen on August 9 when Danny faces Rod Salka in a Showtime main event from Brooklyn. Angel says his son will "destroy" Salka, and advises the opponent to not watch tape of Danny struggling with Mauricio Herrera earlier this year.

"Salka can try to come in. He can work hard. But don't look at the Herrera tape because you'll get confused. Danny Garcia is a chameleon. ... Just because Danny had an awkward night doesn't mean it's going to happen again. He's going to come in to destroy and conquer."

Salka (19-3, 3 KO) is a similar styled boxer to Herrera, but has even less punching power and probably isn't quite as tricky or crafty. And there's no doubt that Garcia (28-0, 16 KO) and his father will be working on correcting what went wrong last time. In fact, given that Danny is a world class fighter, chances are that his tough night with Herrera served as a valuable learning experience.

So how does Rod Salka compete in this fight? Salka is a game, hard-working, very likable fighter. This is a matchup I sort of hate ragging on, because Salka at least fought his way here with a couple good performances (a win over Alexei Collado and a robbery loss to Canelo Alvarez's brother). But he's an overmatched lightweight and not a real contender on paper, and that's just the reality of the situation.

If Salka fights a perfect fight, and Garcia has another off-night or just isn't there mentally, he could be dangerous here. But he still can't punch. That's why he has to be just about flawless, especially defensively, and he'll need some assistance from Garcia, who will have to be much worse than usual, to get rounds from judges, most likely. Garcia will land the harder blows because he's a much harder puncher. Garcia is the promoter's fighter. Garcia is the A-side. Garcia is the defending champion. It's not quite impossible to see Salka pulling this upset, but it's extremely hard, and Golden Boy and Showtime deserve the flak they're getting for this fight. If it turns out to be a great one, then we can all eat crow after we enjoy a good fight.