Danny Garcia’s Ready To Faces Jose Benavidez Jr. In His Super Welterweight Debut
FightersTalkTV.com – After 18 months inactive in the sport, Danny ‘Swift’ Garcia will be turning to the action this Saturday night against Jose Benavidez Jr. at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The fight marks Philadelphia’s own for his super welterweight debut since his loss at the hands of current WBC, WBA, and IBF welterweight champion Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr (28-0, 22 KOs) in December 2020. He lost by scores of 117-111, 116-112, and 116-112.
The former two-weight world champion Garcia had decided to take a break from boxing for two years, which was a questionable move, as he’s lost a lot of time in his career. Garcia (36-3, 21 KOs) has revealed how the global coronavirus pandemic affected him mentally and kept him out of the ring.
“2020 was a good and bad year for me. I fought twice and made a lot of money, but at the same time, there was the pandemic. It was a tough year for me outside of the ring. It was stressful for everybody. I just needed a break. I was tired. I trained hard at the beginning of the year and then we went through the pandemic. I had to wake myself up to train hard again for one of the biggest fights of my career. It just took a mental toll on me. I was mentally tired.
“I just needed a little time off,” Garcia told Yahoo Sports. “Mentally, I was kind of burned out. I was pretty worn out mentally and it didn’t make sense to fight in that mind frame. But I’ve gotten the hunger back. That was a rough year for me with the pandemic and everything else going on. So I needed a break but I feel like I’m back to my old self now.”
Danny Garcia failed to beat Errol Spence Jr. by unanimous decision in his last fight, December 2020.
Held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including WBC/WBA (Super) light welterweight and WBC welterweight, the 34-year-old Garcia considered his credentials worthy of the International Boxing Hall of Fame and he intends to better present his case by campaigning in a new weight class.
“Definitely we definitely want to be in the Hall of Fame. That’s why we do this, to put our names in the history books. That’s why I’m going up to 154 because I want to be a legend, I want to be a guy that’s fearless. A person that’s not afraid to fail, takes risks,” said Garcia.
“No risk, no reward. That’s been me my whole career. We always want to do bigger and better things. That’s why we’re doing this. Not because we have to, because we want to. It’s a big difference.”
In order to be a three-division champion, Garcia would have to unseat the current undisputed king of the super welterweight division in PBC stablemate Jermell Charlo. And beating Jose Benavidez Jr. (27-1-1, 18 KOs) is the first step of the journey.
Ready For New Division Debut
Considered small for a welterweight, Danny will be even more outsized at junior middleweight, going up against bigger fighters like Jermell Charlo, Sebastian Fundora, and Tim Tszyu. At 5-foot-8 Garcia will be at the smaller end of the scale for a 154-pounder but he insists he will be able to perform at the higher weight.
“I always knew that 154 was my walkaround weight. A lot of people think I’m naturally small because I used to fight at 140 and 147. But I was squeezing myself down to get to those weights. Now I’m a little bit older, a little bit wiser. I don’t think that’s the right thing for me to do to lose all that weight.
“I’m eating the right things, I’m doing more with the weights and I feel I have more stamina and can hold the weight better,” he said. “I feel this is a more natural weight for me and I have the strength to compete here.
“You have to know in your heart that you have the skills and that you’ve put in the work. If you’re going to fight these guys, you can’t have any doubts and you eliminate doubts by the work you put in in the gym.
“I’ve been pushing really hard in this camp. The time off helped me because I missed the gym, I missed everything about it. Now, I’m back where I feel like I belong and I am motivated to show everyone what I’ve done.”
Fighting against Benavidez will be the first test for Garcia in the division. The brother of the popular unbeaten 168-lb contender David Benavidez, who many boxing fans believe is the best fighter at super middleweight, has fought lesser opposition in record-padding fights during his 12-year career.
In 2018, Benavidez Jr temporarily took a break from fighting second-tier opposition when he fought superstar Terence Crawford, but it ended badly for him, losing by a 12th-round knockout. After that loss, Benavidez Jr took a three-year break from action before returning to the ring last year against journeyman Francisco Emanuel Torres in November 2021. The judges scored it a 10-round draw, but it appeared Torres had done enough to deserve the victory over Benavidez Jr.
Jose Benavidez Jr. (right) hits the mitts during a training session – Photo by Lalo Hernandez/Team Benavidez.
“Benavidez is a tough fighter. He has some skills. Obviously, he’s 27-1-1 and he’s fought some good fighters. I expect the best of him.
“He’s a very skilled guy and he comes to fight,” Garcia said. “I feel like I have more experience and I’ve fought at a higher level and for longer but I respect him and I’ve trained so hard for that reason.
“He’ll push me but I’m confident in the work I’ve done that I’m going to put on a good show. I want to knock him out but if the knockout doesn’t come, then we’re ready for 12 rounds. I just want to go in there and give the fans a great show.
“I already got the advantage. I got an extra body part. He’s gonna need an extra arm to beat me.” Garcia throws a joke about his six-toe.
As we all know, Garcia was born with a six-toe on his right foot, which prevented him from ever being knocked out in his career. Will it give him a good start on his journey? We’ll see.
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