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If this is it, Danny Garcia is ready to wrap up his career happy with dad by his side
Sitting in his home staring down this Saturday night’s fight against Danny Gonzalez at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Danny Garcia has reached this blunt realization.
“Eighty-five percent chance this will be my last fight,” the former two-division world champion told DAZN News over Zoom recently.
“I fought so many world champions and there’s always going to be somebody else that you can fight. I’ve been doing that my whole career, fighting who they want me to fight. To me, this is more about me going out as a boss.”
Garcia, 37, says all this with a smile and happiness written across his face — a stark contrast to where he was last year both professionally and personally.
In September 2024, Garcia, fighting after a near two-year layoff, lost an uninspired TKO loss to Erislandy Lara, marking the first time in the Philadelphia fighter’s career that he was stopped.
Physically, Garcia was in shape for the fight. His heart, soul and head space entered the bout hurting, however.
His father and longtime trainer, Angel Garcia, had suffered a stroke just five months prior. The local Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the medical episode happened while Angel was hitting the heavy bag at Danny’s gym in their native Philadelphia.
Though Angel was in his son’s corner and even stopped the fight after the ninth round, he wasn’t his energetic, animated self.
The training camp leading up to the Lara fight was not what the Garcias were accustomed to.
“Me just seeing him every day in the gym and just not looking the same,” Garcia said about his dad, “usually I’m mentally strong but there’s some things my heart is soft for … like my father.”
More than a year removed and now entering what could be his final fight, Garcia’s dad has been aided by time to recover.
“He’s a lot better,” Garcia said. “He’s in the gym every day, more of himself. I remember last year, he wouldn’t go running with me or nothing. This morning, he picked me up like ‘Come on, we gotta go!’ So Angel’s back, he’s motivating me again.
“He feels good and he’s excited,” Garcia tacked on. “That’s the Angel I’m used to who’s going to be on your ass if you’re not doing something right.”
Garcia (37-4, 21 KOs) clashes with Gonzalez (22-4-1, 7 KOs) to not only exorcise demons from what appeared to be an off bout against Lara but to go out on his own terms if this is indeed it.
Garcia is having the fight under his own promotional company, Swift Promotions, and would like nothing more to deliver a win.
“Me getting my hand raised and going off as a winner,” he said. “That’s the way the Danny Garcia story ends — with his hand raised in the air.”
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Danny Garcia fought his first fight at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York way back in October 2012, knocking out Erik Morales to defend his then-unified super lightweight crown.
Roughly 13 years later to the date, in a bout billed as his “Farewell to Brooklyn,” the former two-division world champion will clash with Danny Gonzalez in his 10th fight at the Brooklyn venue.
His native Philadelphia and New York City have a sports rivalry, but their intersection worked when it came to supporting his career.
“When Brooklyn adopted me, it was crazy,” Garcia remembers. “I am Puerto Rican and New York is like Philly Ricans, Nuyoricans … a lot of them can’t speak Spanish, they’re hip-hop culture. And that’s how I was raised. That’s why it worked so perfectly.”
Zab Judah, Lamont Peterson, Paulie Malignaggi and Jose Benavidez Jr. are a few fighters Garcia defeated at Barclays and although he fell short on the scorecards against Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter there, he gave the Brooklyn crowds memorable bouts.
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But ask ‘Swift’ about the career win he relishes the most and he does not hesitate to say the September 2013 unanimous decision over Lucas Matthysse at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Garcia had knocked out Amir Khan the summer prior and he felt like critics still doubted him entering the Matthysse bout.
“After I beat Khan, everyone said I was lucky,” Garcia says. “I was the underdog again and I won. I was like ‘what now?’”
In a career that spans 41 professional fights, including 37 wins, championship reigns at 140 and 147 pounds, and losses to only world champions and possible Hall of Famers in Thurman, Porter, Errol Spence Jr. and Erislandy Lara, Garcia produced an honorable career.
While he is “85 percent” sure Saturday night will mark his final bow, he is leaving that 15 percent open to another fight. That is as long as he gets his hand raised impressively and feels good physically and mentally afterwards, Garcia says.
“Would I feel accomplished like I have nothing to prove?” Garcia says playing out one scenario before tossing around another. “Or do I feel like ‘hey, s—t, let me go and try to shock the world one more time?’
“Right now, I’m going into it like it’s my farewell fight.”
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