Danny García

Early life

García was born in North Philadelphia to a mother from Bayamón, Puerto Rico; and his father Ángel García, originally from Naguabo, Puerto Rico, who was also a boxer. Danny's father introduced him to boxing, taking him to Philadelphia's Harrowgate Boxing Club when he was ten years old, which was the minimum age allowed by local law for a minor to train. Ángel has since been Danny's primary boxing coach. Having been raised in the city with the second-largest Puerto Rican community in the United States, Danny identified with his heritage, stating early in his career the desire to become the "next great Puerto Rican fighter". Garcia admired Boxing Hall of Famer Carlos Ortiz as his favorite boxer and considered Ortiz's fight against Lenny Matthews in Philadelphia among the most memorable he had ever witnessed. García finished his amateur career with 107 wins 13 losses.

Amateur highlights

Early career

García made his professional debut on November 17, 2007, at the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey against Mike Denby. He opened up by throwing power shots, but it was a short right that sent Denby to the canvas. Another right put Denby down again in a neutral corner. García moved in for the knockout, and sent Denby down for the third and final time with a right-left combination. After the third knockdown, the referee waved the bout over. His next fight took place on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather, Jr.–Ricky Hatton superfight on December 8, 2007, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. García defeated Jesús Villareal by second-round technical knockout. On January 11, 2008, at the Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa in Cabazon, California, García defeated Marlo Córtez by second-round knockout. With precise accurate punches, he disabled Cortéz, dropping him with a left hook early in the second round, forcing the referee to stop the contest. On March 15, 2008, at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, García fought Charles Wade. He utilized his speed and quickness to get close to Wade before blasting him with a left hook to knock him out.

In his fifth professional fight, García fought Guadalupe Díaz, on April 19, 2008, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. He hurt Díaz early in the fight with a barrage of punches. The referee was forced to stop the fight after Díaz was on wobbly legs. His next fight took place on May 3, 2008, at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California against Julio Gamboa. García was in command of the fight, using his fast hands and good power to win by unanimous decision. On the undercard of the Bernard Hopkins–Kelly Pavlik fight for the world middleweight championship at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, García stopped Dean Nash by technical knockout after three knockdowns in the third round.

He survived a tough fight with Ashley Theophane in February 2010, coming away with a split-decision victory. García knocked out faded contender Mike Arnaoutis in four rounds later in the year. In his next contest held in April 2011, he defeated former lightweight titlist Nate Campbell. On August 15, 2011, García won the vacant NABO Jr. Welterweight belt in Los Angeles fighting on the HBO PPV undercard of Hopkins vs. Dawson, on a split decision over former champion Kendall Holt.

Garcia vs. Morales I

In his first world title contest, García faced Mexican legend and Ring Top 10 Light Welterweight, Erik Morales, for the WBC Super Lightweight World Championship in another chapter of the infamous "Puerto Rico vs. Mexico" boxing rivalry. He began the fight slowly, which Morales used to his advantage and injured his nose. As the fight progressed, García gained control, scoring a knockdown in the eleventh round before receiving a unanimous decision in his favor. The scores granted by the judges were 118–111, 117–110 and 116–112.

Garcia vs. Khan

On 14 July 2012 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Garcia met Amir Khan, who was the #3 ranked light welterweight by The Ring. The fight was a title unification bout, as Garcia's WBC title and Khan's WBA Super title were both on the line. Khan entered the fight as a heavy favorite, with betting odds at 1-7 in his favor.

Khan seemed the faster of the two early, but Garcia pretty quickly found a way to catch many of Khan's punches and was clearly finding the range with his own. Khan won the first two rounds and could have been on his way to winning the third, but with twenty-nine seconds left in the round Garcia countered a Khan combination with a left hook that caught Khan on the neck and dropped him to the canvas. Khan rose to his feet quickly but had been hurt by the punch, and referee Kenny Bayless took an extra few seconds after administering the standing eight count to make sure that Khan could continue. Garcia resumed his attack and nearly finished off Khan, who was saved when the bell rang to end the round. Eight seconds into the fourth Khan, now on unsteady legs, could not withstand a barrage of punches from Garcia, who was now taking control of the fight. Garcia kept pounding away at Khan, who lost his balance and touched the canvas with his gloves, thus forcing Bayless to administer another standing eight count as a fighter is considered down once any body part of his other than his feet touch the ring after a punch.

Khan tried to rally and stay in the fight, but with forty-eight seconds left in the fourth round Garcia knocked him down for a third time. This time, Khan got up quickly, appeared to have recovered from the barrage and told Bayless he was okay to continue. Bayless, after considering Khan's position, decided that the champion had taken enough punishment and stopped the fight, awarding a technical knockout victory. Garcia won the WBA (Super) and vacant The Ring Light Welterweight titles.

Garcia vs. Morales II, Judah

Garcia's next fight was a rematch against Ring Top 10 Light Welterweight, Erik Morales. The fight took place on October 20, l2012, in Brooklyn. Danny Garcia retained his WBC, WBA (Super) & The Ring Light Welterweight title's by knocking out Erik Morales with a thunderous left hook in the fourth round. Here is how FOX Sports described how Danny Garcia knocked out Erik Morales: TV "Morales is dancing in the opening seconds, but is that because he's got a second wind or because he still doesn't know where he is? He did head to the wrong corner at the end of the last round.

This is a bad omen folks. Garcia is tapping Morales' guard with his left hand, literally telling Morales where the next shot is going to come. After four taps, Morales decides it's time to get aggressive. Bad move. Garcia blasts Morales with a left hook that launches Morales through the ropes. You can see it in Morales' eyes, he's not getting back up. KO for Garcia."

Danny Garcia defeated Zab Judah by unanimous decision (115-112, 114-112, 116-111) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on April 27, 2013.

Garcia vs. Matthysse, Herrera

Garcia was a 2-1 underdog going into his fight against Lucas Matthysse on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather vs. Canelo Alvarez superfight September 14, 2013.

Nevertheless, Garcia stood firm and fought a mature fight. Matthysse won several of the early rounds, putting heavy pressure on the champion by utilizing speed and punching power. In the middle rounds, Matthysse sustained an injury to his right eye from a Garcia flinch, to which Garcia targeted the eye throughout the remainder of the fight, subsequently taking the lead on the scorecards and closing the challengers eye. In the eleventh round Matthysse landed a punch that knocked out Garcia's mouthpiece, but Garcia turned the tables and knocked Matthysse down in the 11th round with a four-punch combination. Garcia was docked a point in the final round for low blows, but the last round was very competitive with both champion and challenger trading big shots. Garcia took the unanimous decision (115-111, 114-112 and 114-112), giving Matthysse his first decisive loss. This fight also clarified that Garcia's chin is capable of taking big shots, as it was widely touted before the fight that Garcia would not be able to absorb the huge punching power that Matthysse is famous for. With the victory, Garcia won the vacant Lineal Light Welterweight title.

For beating Judah and Matthysse, Garcia was named 2013 Boxer of the Year by Stiff Jab.

Garcia retained his titles in a disputed majority decision win over Mauricio Herrera. The official scorecards read (114-114, 116-112, 116-112). The fight aired on Showtime and was the first fight for Garcia in his parents homeland of Puerto Rico. Showtime commentators Al Bernstein, Paulie Malignaggi, and Steve Farhood scored the fight in favor of Mauricio Herrera, but the judges scored it for Garcia, with one card at draw. Herrera's jab consistently scored and he was viewed by onlookers as the slightly busier fighter.

Garcia vs. Peterson

On January 14, 2015, NBC announced a partnership with Premier Boxing Champions to air premium fights on network television. It was announced that Danny Garcia vs. Lamont Peterson would fight April 11, 2015 on NBC primetime. The fight was at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The highly anticipated bout between Garcia and Peterson took place at a 143-pound catch weight and was a non-title bout. Both fighters had something to prove as Garcia was coming off an extremely tough fight with Mauricio Herrera and Peterson was still reeling from a knockout loss to Lucas Matthysse in 2013.

In the early rounds Peterson was very defensive and attempted to frustrate Garcia with his awkward style. Garcia was the busier fighter the first four or five rounds throwing and landing more punches although having trouble landing clean punches on Peterson. Both boxers took turns setting the pace, Garcia landing combinations and heavily to the body, Peterson jabbing and landing clean single power punches. Peterson's size and athleticism allowed him to stay in the fight even in the face of waves of serious Garcia body blows. Peterson looked strong going into rounds 10, 11, 12, but gave away round ten completely. Garcia maintained a steady attack in the last three rounds of the fight while Peterson began coming forward and throwing everything he had (possibly suspecting he was trailing). Despite a very strong showing by Peterson, Garcia was awarded a majority decision by scores of 114-114, 115-113, 115-113. Both Peterson and Herrera showed that Garcia's left hook, while accurate and relentless, will not alone lead him to a welterweight Championship. Ringside observers commented that Peterson may have outweighed Garcia by 15-20 lbs at fight time.

Garcia vs. Malignaggi

On August 1, 2015, Garcia made his 147lbs Welterweight debut against Paulie Malignaggi at Barclays Center, Brooklyn in a Premier Boxing Champions fight shown on ESPN. Garcia won the fight with a ninth round Technical Knockout at 2:22 of the round. Garcia pushed the pace early, walking through Malignaggi's jab and firing to the head and body with both hands, particularly the right. Malignaggi was cut above his right eye by the third round and had a large welt beneath the right eye in the sixth, having been bludgeoned by several huge shots from Garcia. Malignaggi was still taking a beating at the 2:22 mark of the ninth, when referee Arthur Mercante Jr. wrapped him in his arms to signal the end, beating Malignaggi's corner, which was about to throw in the towel.

Garcia vs. Guerrero

On November 24, 2015, it was announced that Garcia would be facing Robert Guerrero on January 23, 2016 at Staples Center in Los Angeles in a PBC fight broadcast on FOX which was the first ever major PBC event to be broadcast on the network. Garcia won by unanimous decision 116-112 scored by all judges becoming the new WBC welterweight champion.

Garcia vs. Vargas

After holding out for a possible super fight with Floyd Mayweather, Garcia announced his next fight would be against Colombian fringe contender Samuel Vargas (25-2-1, 13 KOs) at the Liacouras Center in Temple University's in Philadelphia on November 12. It was said that the fight would be a non-title, 10 round fight and would pave the way for a unification fight with Keith Thurman in 2017. This was the first time Garcia fought in his hometown of Philadelphia since 2010. After dropping Vargas in round 2, the fight became one sided. Garcia eventually forced the referee to stop the fight in round 7 following a barrage of punches which pinned Vargas against the ropes. Thurman was on commentator duty for the fight and entered the ring after the fight was over to engage a staredown and exchange of words with Garcia.

Garcia vs. Thurman

On October 25, Showtime announced several fights to take place towards the end of 2016 and early 2017. One of them was the much anticipated welterweight unification fight between Garcia and fellow undefeated welterweight champion Keith Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs), who holds the WBA title. Garcia defeated journeyman Samuel Vargas in a tune-up fight on November 12, which officially set up the fight for March 4, 2017 at the Barclays Center in New York City. Thurman chose not to have any tune-up and would fight Garcia after a long 9 month rest. At a press conference on January 18, 2017 the fight was officially announced and it was said that it would be shown live on CBS. The conference got heated up, leading to Angel Garcia standing up and shouting racial slurs towards Thurman.

Honors and awards

He was named the 2013 Philadelphia Pro Athlete of the Year by the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association.