DAVIE, Fla. — There may be no place like home for “Kid Kansas” Alan Garcia, but the gym is a close second place.
The lightweight prospect from the small town of Ulysses, Kansas flew out to South Florida early last week to join his friend - and former amateur opponent - Xander Zayas as he begins preparations for his junior middleweight title unification bout on January 31. Though that show in Puerto Rico is two months away, Garcia says he hopes to get a spot on that undercard. And if so, he’ll be ready, as he’s having his car shipped to South Florida for training camp, and he can stay ready for whatever his promoter Top Rank has in store.
“I’ve been in and out the gym a little bit, just here and there, shaking off. I'm officially back, so I feel good and getting back into the groove and just getting ready for whatever's next,” said Garcia, 17-1 (12 KOs), after a workout at the Sweatbox Gym in Davie, Florida.
As it’s still early in camp, he isn’t sparring yet. Instead, he spent the afternoon going through drills, like shadowboxing through a ring that has been split into quadrants with ropes, as trainer Javiel Centeno keeps a watchful eye and reminds him to not stay in one spot too long after finishing his combinations.
The 22-year-old Garcia is coming off a statement making performance over Iron Alvarez, finishing off the Florida-based Alvarez in five rounds on September 6 in Kansas. Garcia punctuated the fight with an exclamation mark, hitting Alvarez with a vicious combination that had Alvarez hung up on the ropes, forcing a referee’s stoppage.
“It was very important for me to send a message,” said Garcia. “He was a lot taller than I expected, and a lot longer, and so I kind of just had to adjust in the ring. I just took my time, and when the moment came, I caught him with the big shot, that’s when I knew to slowly apply pressure. And the next round, in the fifth round, that’s when I started landing those big shots and got him out of there.”
Whatever is in store next for Garcia, it isn’t likely to be the only boxer to hang a loss on his career, Ricardo Fernandez, the Spanish journeyman who scored a shocking fifth round knockout of him in September of 2024. Garcia had won all four rounds heading into the fifth, when a single punch ended his night. Garcia says his promoter says it isn’t necessary to revisit the matchup, but admits the loss had bothered him for some time.
“I wanted that for so long. But I talked with my promoters and they said…I was beating him the whole fight. They just said it's a fight that's not really worth it. They said they know I could beat him, so they just want me to move past that. But I did hold a chip on my shoulder for a very long time,” said Garcia, who has won three straight since.
“To this day, I reflect on that fight because once a fighter feels that they know they never want to feel that again. So I just use that as motivation, and just keep moving forward and keep trying to get better and better.”
If Garcia is in need of motivation, he doesn’t have to look very far. Zayas, the WBO junior middleweight champion, and himself train at the same times, giving Garcia a measuring stick to judge his gym performance off of.
“It motivates me, seeing someone come from the same level of amateurs that I did. I see the sacrifice, and it makes me want to give more and to bite down,” said Garcia.
