If former two-division titleholder Danny Garcia is to be believed, he’s unusually confident headed into a self-promoted fight he has oddly dubbed “Farewell to Brooklyn.”
Garcia, 37-4 (21 KOs), will take on Danny Gonzalez at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, on October 18, and on Thursday, Garcia was in the borough to talk up the show and assure that “I have fight left in me.”
Kudos to any fighter still testing himself into his mid-30s – and Garcia unequivocally did that in a stoppage loss to Erislandy Lara in Las Vegas last September – but Gonzalez, 22-4-1 (7 KOs), doesn’t appear to be the opponent to prove that Garcia has much left to offer any contenders at junior middleweight.
“My last fight didn’t go my way, but setbacks happen in boxing,” Garcia said. “I’ve always come back stronger every time. I always beat someone up bad, and that’s what I’m coming to do.”
“I was training and I was in shape, but my heart and my soul wasn’t there leading into my last fight. That’s 85 per cent of the sport. But now being back in Brooklyn I have the heart and spirit of a fighter and I’m ready to show it.”
Garcia, of Philadelphia, said his most recent win – a majority decision over Jose Benavidez Jnr in July 2022, his previous appearance at Barclays – tops anything Gonzalez has done in his career. Garcia has a point: Gonzalez, who was outpointed by Chris Algieri in 2019 in his only matchup against a name fighter – arguably did his best work in his most recent bout, a 10-round unanimous decision over Michael Anderson last October.
“For the first time in a long time, I feel like I really have a chip on my shoulder,” Garcia said. “I have to show the world again how great I really am.”
Gonzalez said Thursday that he wants the fight to be not only Garcia’s goodbye to Brooklyn but also his “farewell to boxing.” He even claimed he would give “pull a Danny Garcia against Danny Garcia,” who once stunned Amir Khan in his first defense of a welterweight title after lifting the belt of the great (but grizzled) Erik Morales. Of course, that was 13 years ago.
“Danny has no power left in him,” Gonzalez said. “I’m gonna bring the dog to the fight, and we’re gonna see who’s got the bigger dog.
“I’m gonna outclass him and out-dog him. I’m gonna do whatever it takes to win the fight.”
Perhaps a return to Barclays will energize him, as he expects. He has fought at the venue on nine previous occasions, including wins over Morales (in their rematch), Zab Judah, Lamont Peterson and Paulie Malignaggi. The last of those, however, is a decade in the past, and Garcia has since lost to Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter in his last meaningful world-class fights there. At 37, he says he’ll draw strength from being back at Barclays.
“I really feel like I have a personal connection to Brooklyn,” he said. “It’s always electrifying. I love fighting here in Brooklyn.
“When I come to this building, I come to fight. I feel like I’m undefeated here, with two controversial losses. When I’m here, I become possessed. I just want to win.”
