By Keith Idec

NEW YORK – When asked what he expects and read to hear in the days after he fights Mikey Garcia on Saturday night, Adrien Broner offered one word.

Excuses.

“They’re gonna make an excuse about what happened,” Broner said Thursday before a press conference in Manhattan. “They’re gonna try to make an excuse why Adrien Broner f***ed Mikey up. I don’t care. F*** the excuses! Have my check right!”

Broner (33-2, 24 KOs, 1 NC) is confident Garcia (36-0, 30 KOs) was overly ambitious when he eagerly agreed to box Broner at 140 pounds, a division above where Garcia won the WBC lightweight title in his previous fight.

Garcia opened as a 5-1 favorite over Broner, whose inconsistency, especially in training camps, has hurt his career. By Friday, Garcia was barely a 2-1 favorite entering a scheduled 12-round fight Showtime will televise as the main event of a doubleheader Saturday night from Barclays Center (9 p.m. ET/PT).

Broner admits he was offended by the opening odds, but he has used doubters as motivation for a make-or-break fight for the former four-division champion.

“I laugh, man,” Broner said. “Coming from where I come from, man, I’m used to being the underdog, man. Man, listen, man, projects to paradise, man.

“It’s cool, man. Like I said, you’ve got people out here who’ve never been on Section 8 [housing]. You know what I’m saying? And that’s where I come from, so to be where I’m at, I’m just blessed. And Saturday night, it’s a lot more room on the bandwagon for anybody else that wants to hop on.”

Throughout the promotion of their fight, the 29-year-old Garcia has been lauded as one of the top boxers, pound-for-pound, in the world. That’s not the case with the 28-year-old Broner, who has lost the two biggest fights of his career to Marcos Maidana and Shawn Porter, both by 12-round unanimous decision.

“It’s OK,” Broner said. “Let’s see who’s on the pound-for-pound list after Saturday night.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.