Danny Garcia's father continues to drag family name through mud with profane, racially charged rant

In one of the most despicable, outrageous displays at a boxing event in years, Angel Garcia went on a vile rant in which a riot was prevented only because Keith Thurman is such a classy, decent human being.

Thurman will fight Danny Garcia in a WBA-WBC welterweight title unification bout on March 4 on CBS in what should be one of the best fights of the year.

Kudos, though, to Thurman for having the type of self-restraint that enabled him to remain cool despite Angel Garcia calling him all manner of racial epithets. Angel Garcia is Danny Garcia’s father and trainer.

Danny Garcia has throughout his professional career been a soft-spoken, respectful man who frequently has been humiliated by his father’s wild antics.

What happened at Wednesday’s news conference, though, was far beyond simple trash talk. A boxing license is a privileged one, and the New York State Athletic Commission should take bold action against Angel Garcia for this type of behavior.

Angel Garcia erupted and used a racial epithet multiple times when Thurman said at the dais that he figured he would knock Garcia out. He used a derogatory slang word for a gay person to refer to Thurman, blasted immigrants and spoke of seeing Thurman die in the ring. He also referred to Thurman with a slang term for female genitalia.

He also inexplicably invoked President-elect Donald Trump’s name during his rant, in which he became unhinged.

Promoter Lou DiBella, who tweeted “N-words, homophobic epithets and anti-immigrant rhetoric have no place at a boxing press conference [or anywhere else],” told Yahoo Sports that because of Angel Garcia’s actions, no member of either fighter’s team will be allowed on the dais at the fight week news conference.

“Angel Garcia will not have the opportunity to have the microphone at the [final] press conference,” DiBella told Yahoo Sports. “It’s only going to be myself, the fighters themselves, a representative of the site, a TV executive and some sponsors.”

The New York commission released a statement to Yahoo Sports condemning Angel Garcia’s words.

“The New York State Athletic Commission does not in any way condone or excuse Mr. Garcia’s words and actions,” it read. “Angel Garcia is not a licensee of the commission and therefore is not subject to its jurisdiction at this time. In the event Mr. Garcia pursues a license with the state athletic commission, this incident and all relevant information will be reviewed and this matter would be revisited in that context.”

WBC champion Mauricio Sulaiman said he’s already submitted a report on the matter to his board of directors and noted that Angel Garcia could face some sort of punishment. He spoke out vehemently against his behavior. Danny Garcia is the WBC champion.

“We cannot in any form or manner accept these type of words,” Sulaiman told Yahoo Sports. “We completely reject this kind of behavior and what he did is absolutely contrary to what boxing represents. The WBC is outraged by this behavior as are the many people who have contacted us about it.

“I want to make clear that this has nothing to do with the boxer himself. But it’s a poor representation of his team and because Danny is the WBC champion, we have to address this.”

Angel Garcia bizarrely transitioned to immigrant boxers as he continued to rant while DiBella was trying to regain control of the news conference.

“At least he’s an American fighter,” Angel Garcia shouted about Thurman. “I got love for American fighters. All these [expletive] immigrant fighters come from another [expletive] country, [expletive] them on [expletive] fighting. That’s the only respect I’m going to give him is that he’s an American, like Danny is.

“God bless America. Where Donald Trump at? Come get him. I want to see Trump. Trump, where are you? Make America great again.”

Thanks to the efforts of Stephen Espinoza, the executive vice president and general manager of Showtime Sports, the fight will be broadcast live in primetime on CBS, only the second live primetime bout the network has broadcast in the last four decades.

The outburst can’t be good for boxing’s future on CBS, though a crazy racist rant from one individual should not impact an entire sport.

Espinoza gave a statement to Yahoo Sports in which he said, “The remarks were reprehensible and have no place at this event, or anywhere else for that matter.”

While Thurman was speaking, Angel Garcia began to shout. He said, “Listen, bitch-ass [N-word], you’re getting [expletive] up,” and then physically approached Thurman in a threatening manner. Danny Garcia’s mother approached the stage as people tried to restrain Angel Garcia and said to Thurman, “You need to sit your [expletive] ass down or get beat the [expletive] up.”

Thurman looked at her and said, “Yap, yap, yap, yap,” upon which she responded, “Shut the [expletive] up.”

The fight presents itself as one of the best of the year between two skilled and powerful boxers. Thurman is 27-0 with 22 KOs and Garcia is 33-0 with 19 KOs.

Angel Garcia’s idiocy threatened to destroy a fight fans have long called for. The dais was perched high in the Barclays Center and if someone had fallen backwards in a scrum, there was a chance for a serious injury.

If it had been one of the boxers, the fight almost certainly would have been off.

If Angel Garcia’s intent was to make a fool of himself, he succeeded. But thanks to Thurman’s restraint, it didn’t become a bigger deal. Had Thurman pushed or slapped at Angel Garcia, a lousy day would have been magnitudes worse.

Thurman was too smart to stoop so low, and so things didn’t get much worse than the classless jawing from Angel Garcia.

Angel Garcia has trained his son since the amateurs and surely will apply for a license to work his son’s corner on March 4. Hopefully, New York officials live up to their word and don’t allow him to get away with such activities.

(See the news conference below. Warning: Strong language used. Viewer discretion advised.)