Danny Garcia sets up fight for WBC super lightweight title

PHILADELPHIA'S DANNY Garcia will fight Erik Morales for the WBC super lightweight championship on Jan. 25 in Houston.

The bout officially will be announced at a news conference today.

Garcia (22-0, 14 knockouts) won the WBO junior welterweight title with a split-decision victory over Kendall Holt in October in Los Angeles. It was Garcia's first appearance on a pay-per-view telecast.

Garcia, 23, is from the Juniata section and is part of a young group of Philadelphia fighters, including welterweight Mike Jones, rising to the next level.

As an amateur, Garcia won the 2006 U.S. national title and lost in the final qualification bout for the 2008 Olympic team.

Morales, 35, is a future Hall of Famer who has held titles in four divisions. Morales (52-7, 36 KOs) is coming off a 10th-round TKO of late-replacement Pablo Cesar Cano in mid-September to win the vacant WBC title that had been stripped from Timothy Bradley Jr.

The Garcia-Morales bout, at Reliant Arena, will be part of an HBO After Dark boxing doubleheader. James Kirkland and Carlos Molina fight in the junior middleweight co-feature.