"You know, everybody is giving [Danny] Garcia a tough time. I mean, it's okay to get a tune-up bout just to stay sharp. It's a tune-up bout to stay sharp and keep the tools tight. You need fights like that. He's still young and he needs fights like that," stated undefeated pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather, who came to the defense of WBC & WBA welterweight champion Danny Garcia during a recent conversation with FightHype.com. Garcia received a lot of criticism leading up to and after his 2nd round knockout of Rod Salka, an unranked lightweight who many felt never deserved a shot to face the unified jr. welterweight champion. The fight was considered to be a mismatch the moment it was announced, prompting the sanctioning bodies to refuse to approve Salka as a legitimate title challenger. Although fans and media alike were extremely critical of the matchup, Mayweather explains that bouts like that are a necessity for young fighters who have participated in consecutive difficult fights.
"A guy my age, I can't afford a tune-up bout. You know, a tune-up bout for me is $32 million. I gotta get $32 million for a tune-up bout," Mayweather continued. "But like I said before, everybody is coming down so hard on Danny Garcia. I'm proud of Danny Garcia. He's going out there and doing what he has to do. He needed a tune-up bout because he just had fought a tough bout in Puerto Rico. I think it could have gone the other way, but I'm glad he got the victory. But like I said before, after that tough fight in Puerto Rico, he needed a tune-up bout."
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