• García impressed by Briton's stoppage win over Carlos Molina
• Philadelphian first set to fight Zab Judah in February
Danny García, the man who left Amir Khan a wrecked shell on the floor of a Las Vegas ring in the summer, travelled halfway across America to witness his rehabilitation on a crisp winter's night in Los Angeles and reckoned Khan's thrashing of Carlos Molina was enough to justify a rematch.
Months of tedious negotiations and trash talk await, of course. Khan, also, will want time to let his fractured hands heal, the price he was willing to pay for pounding Molina with 156 power punches over 10 one-sided rounds in front of 6,109 Angelenos on Saturday night until the referee, Jack Reiss, decided the local fighter's cut and butchered face could take no more.
García, too, has work to attend to: defending the light-welterweight belts he ripped from Khan against Zab Judah in New York in February. There is also the small matter of García's father, Angel, who goaded Khan with racial taunts in Las Vegas and whose acid tongue remains in good working order.
But, encouragingly, the man whose final call it probably will be has no problem fighting Khan again. "If that's what the promoters want and the fans want, then we can do it," García Jr said. "If I have to give him another shot, then I will give him another shot."
Khan boxed brilliantly on the outside behind the fastest jab in boxing and made only a few minor errors of judgment. Those meaty counter-hooks he did take steadied rather than rocked him, unsurprising given that Molina was fighting at 10st in a major bout for the first time in 18 fights. It was as good as Khan has looked in a long time, vindicating his decision to leave Freddie Roach after losing to García, he would say.
The three judges scored it a shut-out for Khan before the stoppage and his new trainer, Virgil Hunter, declared with predictable hyperbole: "He is on his way again to becoming a truly great boxer."
Roach was in the building and smiling over the performance of his new welterweight hope Frankie Gómez, a 48-second winner against Pavel Miranda, but he slipped away quietly.
There is still heat between him and Khan, and the fighter's family are not happy with Roach's version of their split. "There are two sides to this story," his father, Shah, told me later, not altogether pleased with my account of it last week. "It will all come out soon."
What was wholly unexpected was García's fulsome tribute for the man he destroyed in July.
"I finished him in four rounds and learnt a lot from that fight and have since become a better fighter," the Philadelphian said. "I grew up in that fight because Amir is definitely up there. He is world class. I knew Amir was going to be fast but I thought, 'How fast can he be? He is only a human being after all.' But boy was he fast. I was thinking, 'Who else was in the ring hitting me!'
"I had to adapt quickly, because I am not the fastest starter in the world, but, as soon as I started landing punches, I knew I could beat him.
"I don't think his defence is poor – he is reckless. He tries to throw too many punches at one time and that's why he gets hit. He just needs to be a little more cautious. He just can't go into the ring thinking that he can destroy everyone, just because he punches fast. But I don't want to say too much because I don't want him to prepare better."
Khan impressed not only his family, friends and fans in this garlanded old venue (host to Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali in its 53 years, not to mention John F Kennedy the year he became President) but also his American partners, Golden Boy Promotions, his new TV friends at Showtime – and the formidable Team García.
The GBP chief executive, Richard Schaefer, hinted Khan's next opponent might be Josésito López in the spring, which would suit Hunter, who reckons he has some work to do on Khan yet. If García beats Judah, he could entertain Khan back in Las Vegas in June or July and victory there would set the Bolton boxer on the trail of the man who started his troubles a year ago, Lamont Peterson. There is much to do before then.
Angel García, who said of Khan before he fought his son, "I never saw a Pakistani who could fight", was in combative mood on Saturday, and remains a considerable roadblock in any talks.
"If we win on 9 February," he said, "we can sit down and talk about it.
"It's not about the money. The question I ask myself is 'if he had beaten Danny, would he have given Danny a rematch?'. Every time he beats someone, he never gives them a rematch. But every time he loses, he wants a rematch. It's a two-way street."
As for his son, he reckoned: "Danny is getting more mature. Before he would hurt you and let you recover. Now he just wants to finish. That's part of his mentality right now, to destroy you. Now he's the champion, he has to go out there and let people know he's the true champion. He's got to go out there and destroy people in four rounds."
Danny chuckled at the observation and observed: "I think Amir knows that my dad will be talking this time around as well, so it's not even going to bother him. But, in the first fight, Amir wasn't expecting it.
"So my dad just woke him up. The good thing was that he got under his skin. The crazy thing was that Amir seemed more worried about my dad than he was about me."
But maybe Danny is now just a little bit more worried about Khan.
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Guardian