A question that has quietly lingered around Danny Garcia – though lately with more urgency – is this: Has Garcia done enough in his career to enter the International Boxing Hall of Fame?

Garcia went from an obscure prospect to an unlikely underdog who became a staple of telecasts in the 2010s, a prominent figure on Premier Boxing Champions broadcasts.

Let’s look at the career arc of the 37-year-old Garcia. 

He turned professional in November 2007, needing only 1 minute and eight seconds to stop Mike Denby in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Over time, Garcia developed on undercards, displaying speed and power, aligning with his moniker: “Swift.” Garcia’s first consequential fight, which left an impression on fight fans, was a majority decision over Ashley Theophane. The outcome was questioned in a close fight. Robert Diaz, the former Golden Boy matchmaker who worked with Garcia until the fighter moved on to PBC in 2015, recalls the fight.

“I remember him being very concerned after the fight, before the decision,” Diaz said. “In that close fight, we saw the growth.”

The fight served as a turning point in Garcia’s career. He went on to defeat Jorge Romero via a ninth-round technical knockout in Cancun, Mexico – a fight Diaz described as “a war” – that marked the start of Garcia’s rise to consistent main event fighter. In 2011, Garcia defeated Kendall Holt by split decision on the undercard of Chad Dawson versus Bernard Hopkins, his predecessor as a Philadelphia fighting staple.

In his following bout, Garcia won a unanimous decision over Erik Morales for the vacant WBC junior welterweight title, even dropping the Mexican great in the fight. Garcia entered as a slight favorite and won a close fight, setting the stage for his greatest moment as a pro: a battle against Amir Khan. Garcia, a massive underdog, threw a blind left hook in an exchange with Khan – and it landed.

“Khan's hand speed was giving him hell through two and a half rounds, but Garcia waited for Khan to stay in the pocket for just a beat too long (as he so often did) and then unleashed his big bomb,” BoxingScene’s Kieran Mulvaney recalled. “Khan never recovered, and in the next round, Garcia stopped him.”

It’s also important to remember the landscape at that time. HBO and Showtime were the major networks, and Floyd Mayweather Jnr, the pay-per-view king of the sport, had signed a deal with Showtime. Garcia was at the forefront of the movement of popular US-based boxers from HBO Boxing (which had long been the gold standard) to Showtime Championship Boxing. Garcia’s first main event fight on Showtime was in October 2012, when he defeated Morales in their rematch. Garcia once again landed his “no-look left hook,” which this time knocked out Morales.

Another big part of Garcia’s story is his father, Angel Garcia. Angel is fiercely proud of his son, and vocal, setting the stage for other fathers to carve out spaces in the sport: Junior Lopez (Teofimo Lopez’s father) and Bill Haney (Devin Haney’s father), for example.

“Angel Garcia will go down as a memorable figure in boxing, as he set the mold for the outspoken father that we see nowadays everywhere in the sport,” BoxingScene’s Ryan Songalia said. “He was an essential part of his son’s career, as his son was mostly a soft-spoken guy who did his talking in the ring.”

Said Diaz: “It was a dream come true to work with him and his dad. There was not a fight that I can remember them turning down.”

After defeating Morales, Garcia outpointed Brooklyn's Zab Judah, helping lift Garcia into the role of headliner in New York shows.

Then he fought Lucas Matthysse, who had been crowned the “next Manny Pacquiao” by Richard Schaeffer after he knocked out Lamont Peterson in his previous fight. Matthysse’s two losses were controversial split decisions to Devon Alexander and Judah. The consensus was that Matthysse was the goods, an Argentinian power puncher with the ability to apply relentless pressure against his opponents. In his fight with Matthysse in the co-feature of the Floyd Mayweather Jnr-Saul “Canelo” Alvarez pay-per-view, Garcia was an underdog again.

“I was convinced Matthysse would obliterate him, and as I recall, early on, he took a lead against Garcia,” Mulvanney said. “But Danny never quit, hung tough, and gradually wore him down and took over that fight.”

Stephen Edwards – the trainer of former unified junior middleweight titleholder Julian Williams, Kyrone Davis and recent titleholder Caleb Plant, and a contributor to BoxingScene – shared his thoughts about Garcia’s key victories:

“In the ring, Danny had a clutch gene. He came through in big moments early in his career against Kendall Holt, Erik Morales, Amir Khan and Lucas Matthysse. All of those fights were considered 50-50 fights, or not in Danny's favor. He came through with the wins, and it literally set him up for big showcases late in his career.”

Garcia’s unanimous decision win over Matthysse cemented him as the man in the junior welterweight division and a top fighter of his era. Then came the ugly run. He saw a three-fight stretch that muddied a lot of his early success. Garcia won a contentious majority decision over Mauricio Herrera in a fight billed as a homecoming fight in Puerto Rico. Herrera, a gritty fighter, had lost close decisions to Mike Alvarado and Karim Mayfield but entered the bout on a two-fight winning streak. Most who watched it felt Herrera did enough to edge the fight, but it was Garcia who got the decision. Then, five months later, Garcia returned against Rod Salka, a fighter who was not deemed to be a title contender.

“If you are taking back-to-back tough fights to keep longevity in the career, you need a fight like Rod Salka,” Diaz said. “Outside of that, look at his resume: Matthysse, Herrera, Peterson, Paulie [Malignaggi], Robert Guerrero, it goes on.”

Garcia made his debut with PBC in 2015, winning a narrow decision over Lamont Peterson – a third consecutive lackluster win that left fans sour. Garcia never quite regained his momentum after his best stretch, moving up to welterweight and defeating former titleholders Malignaggi and Guerrero. He defeated Samuel Vargas, but the fight seemed to confirm the criticism of his detractors – that he too often benefited from an “A-side advantage.”

Garcia would finally lose his unblemished record to Keith Thurman in 2017. He returned by stopping Brandon Rios, and then lost a unanimous decision to Shawn Porter in 2018. Garcia’s welterweight run was relatively quiet, his best performance coming against Adrian Granados – a rugged fighter who upset Amir Imam and gave Adrien Broner a hard fight – in a seventh-round stoppage win. In 2020, Garcia fought Errol Spence Jnr on pay-per-view dropping a unanimous decision. By the end of that year, the magic Garcia once produced was no longer there.

“The second half of his career wasn’t nearly as prosperous, as he lost all three title fights following the Keith Thurman fight,” Songalia said. “But sometimes it’s not about the belts you win, but the memories you make.”

Since the Spence fight, Garcia hasn’t fought much. In fact, since 2022, he has fought only twice, once at junior middleweight and once at middleweight. He defeated Jose Benavidez Jnr by majority decision and then returned last year to be stopped by Erislandy Lara in a middleweight title fight.

“I've always liked Danny Garcia, until his ill-advised comeback against Erislandy Lara,” Mulvaney said. “He was competitive in every fight; had he won a couple more rounds, he could have beaten Porter and Thurman and found himself on the cusp of the Hall of Fame.”

“Danny is one of those guys that everyone likes,” Edwards said. “He’s one of the more humble and charitable fighters I've ever seen. He's an excellent fighter – but an even better person.”

Saturday’s contest, barring something unforeseen, will not impact Garcia’s legacy when it comes to Hall of Fame credentials. But it still isn’t clear whether the Hall will open its doors to him. If he were a baseball player, Garcia would be New York Yankees right-hander Mike Mussina, a very good pitcher whose career was debated at length before he was finally inducted into baseball’s hall in 2019.

“My gut tells me that Danny Garcia will get into the Hall of Fame,” Songalia said. “He was a very popular fighter in America, well-liked, and was always in great fights.”

But was that enough to make him an all-time great?

“I think the biggest thing he had going for him was that he was always so relaxed in the ring,” Mulvaney said. “Even when he fell behind in a fight, he stayed calm and looked for an opportunity to land that left hook.”

Diaz also points to Garcia’s willingness to face dangerous opponents, despite critics often bringing up the Salka fight.

“If you look at his resume, even early on, he fought a lot of the guys,” Diaz said.

Edwards looks at Garcia as an important piece of Philadelphia boxing history, a fighter who was vital for a generation.

“I love Danny for everything he did for Philly boxing,” Edwards said. “He held it down to bridge the generations from B-Hop to Boots.”