You may have not realized it but Danny Garcia made his 2025 debut over the weekend(after not having been in action for over a year) which actually served as his farewell fight at the Barclay Center. To some it may seem odd that a boxer who hails from Philadelphia would have this event in Brooklyn, New York.
But it does make sense given that he fought in this venue eight times (most as the featured performer) and some of his most important bouts took place here against the likes of Erik Morales, Zab Judah, Lamont Peterson, Paulie Malignaggi, Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter. No, he didn't win them all, but he won his share to a point where he became a centerpiece of PBC as they began operations about a decade ago on various time-buys on a multitude of networks.
Barclay Center
On Saturday night in front of a rather paltry crowd he scored a fourth round stoppage of the hand-picked Daniel Gonzalez with his trademark left hook to end his career. (Well, he did say to FightHub that he was 85-percent sure that this was his swan song, you know how these things go in this racket). But if this is indeed his last professional bout, Garcia ends with a mark of 38-4 (22 KOs).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VoEmB-G2c8
For the most part it was a pretty memorable career. One that was productive and at times very lucrative. Despite the 'Swift' moniker, Garcia wasn't a particularly fast or flashy fighter, but he did have good solid skills, was an effective counter-puncher and he had a heavy left hook. I'm not sure he did anything great -- perhaps outside his hook -- but did a lot of things pretty well.
Coming up as a solid amateur in Philly, he eventually signed with Al Haymon as his adviser, who was part of his expansive stable that was developed under the Golden Boy Promotions banner in the latter part of the aughts.
Barclay Center Edit
Eventually, he defeated the likes of Nate Campbell and then Kendall Holt (two former world champions) before winning his first world title against the aged Erik Morales (who was stripped of the belt beforehand for not making weight) in Houston at the Reliant Arena via 12 round decision. Like most young prospects he was being fed a diet of past-their-prime prizefighters who had seen better days. Just about every boxer has had this type of guidance up the ladder.
But as he was paired against the highly touted Amir Khan in the summer of 2012, he was the decided underdog. After some early trouble, he caught the fast but fragile Khan and sent him down in round three and then finished him in the next stanza. Garcia had arrived as a player on the world class scene, where he remained for about the next decade or so.
There were victories over the aforementioned Judah, and then another upset victory over Lucas Matthysse who came into this bout with a fearsome reputation. Then Garcia seemingly got a gift in his Puerto Rico homecoming the next fight versus the difficult Mauricio Herrera. From there he embarked on his run as a welterweight where he came up short in title attempts versus Thurman, Porter and eventually Errol Spence. But he did win a vacant belt at 147 versus Robert Guerrero.
Ring Magazine
Then last fall he was beaten handily over nine rounds by Erislandy Lara in what was technically a middleweight contest.
There seems to be two schools of thought when it comes to Garcia. To some he is a sure-fire future Hall-of-Famer who was elite. To others he is an overrated fighter who was protected by Haymon. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
You wonder if Garcia, who always seemed pretty likable, suffered from the boisterous antics of his father, Angel, who fit the profile of the modern day boxing father.
This is what we know, he was a unified champion at 140. But as a welterweight he was just good but far from great. To his credit he has upset wins over Khan and Matthysee (and this to me is important, many fighters don't have any) but at the same time people still point to dubious decisions over Herrera and Ashley Theophane earlier in his career. Others have accused him of flat out avoiding Viktor Postol, and then later Terence Crawford as he stood firmly on 'the other side of the street'. Hence the moniker 'Cherry' on Twitter that gained quite a bit of traction as he did take on the likes of the over-matched Rod Salka.
Lunatoonboxing
It's too bad he wasn't allowed to take the Top Rank offer to face Manny Pacquiao. That could've been his defining victory, or at the very least a huge payday.
Since 2019, Garcia has only had five fights. Like the rest of the PBC stable he has been beset by inactivity. Something that his father groused about last week in the lead-up to this recent event at Barclay Center. Regardless, Garcia is a boxer who won some titles, and was featured on the likes of HBO, Showtime, NBC, CBS and headlined in big venues all across America.
He made a good living. It may not have been a great career, but it was still a pretty damn good one.
