Danny Garcia admits that his presence at the most recent boxing event at Barclays Center was a business trip more so than taking in a night at the fights.
The former lineal junior welterweight champion and WBC welterweight titlist was among the many celebrities in the house for the May 28 Showtime Pay-Per-View event, which saw Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis knock out Rolando Romero inside of six rounds. At the time, Philadelphia’s Garcia (36-3, 21KOs) was sitting on a secret that he’d be the next to play the Brooklyn venue whose doors he helped open to boxing nearly ten years ago.
It was since announced that Garcia will face former title challenger Jose Benavidez Jr. (27-1-1, 18KOs) atop a July 30 Showtime tripleheader from Barclays.
“One of the main reasons why I went to the fight was, I wanted to get my head back in the game,” Garcia told BoxingScene.com. “I wanted to get my head back in the atmosphere of big fights. I knew I was heading back to the Barclays Center. I wanted to feel that atmosphere. I wanted to see the fans and see what I’ve been missing.
“I definitely went for motivational purposes. It was great motivation and a great night of boxing. I want to provide the same thing for my fans on July 30.”
Garcia has headlined at the Brooklyn hot spot on eight previous occasions including its first boxing event in October 2012. The now 34-year-old boxer previously held the site record for the largest live gate, with his split decision defeat to Keith Thurman in their March 2017 WBC/WBA welterweight title unification generating $2,301,129 in ticket sales. The mark held for more than five years before it was surpassed by Davis-Romero, which generated $4,496,710 from 16,282 tickets sold.
Overall, Garcia is 6-2 at the ten-year-old venue, which primarily serves as the home to the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets. His last fight in his self-described home away from home came in a twelve-round, unanimous decision win over Ivan Redkach in January 2020, just before the pandemic.
His only fight since that night came in a twelve-round loss to Errol Spence in their December 2020 WBC/IBF welterweight title fight on the road at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Garcia has since moved up to junior middleweight, where he will debut at the weight against Phoenix’s Benavidez. Everything else about the night will be like old times.
“I was the first [main event] at Barclays. I’ve been building the fan base there for the last ten years,” noted Garcia. “New York, there’s a lot of Puerto Rican fans, a lot of hip hop fans. There’s all different types of fans, diversity. New York is the place to fight and build a fan base. They love me, they’ve accepted me and I’m just happy.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
