A Farewell to Danny Garcia, Brooklyn’s Adopted son

In a night billed as a final bow to Brooklyn, Danny Garcia (38-4, 22 KO) fittingly provided an encore of his first fight at the Barclays Center. Garcia used his trademark left hook to score a fourth-round knockout over Danny Gonzalez (22-5-1, 7 KO), notching a knockout in the same round on the same punch as in his first fight at a brand-new Barclays Center twelve years ago against Mexican legend Erik Morales.

It was a farewell to Brooklyn for Danny Garcia. For boxing fans in the borough, it was a farewell to a consummate professional who has thrilled fans over the course of over 40 pro fights. Garcia is from Philadelphia, but the Philly native made Brooklyn his adopted home, with his fight against Daniel Gonzalez being Garcia’s tenth appearance at the Barclays Center.

Much like Brooklyn’s iconic piece of architecture, Danny Garcia helped bridge a new generation of boxing fans into New York City’s largest borough. As to why Garcia felt so comfortable making Brooklyn his home away from home, as the Beastie Boys sang in An Open Letter to NYC:

Brownstones, water towers, trees, skyscrapers

Writers, prize fighters and Wall Street traders

We come together on the subway cars

Diversity unified, whoever you are

…

For his final foray at the Barclays Center, Garcia was accompanied to the ring by two top young fighters, Stephen Fulton and Teofilmo Lopez, out of Philadelphia and Brooklyn, respectively. Whether or not this was Garcia’s final fight of his career, or just in Brooklyn, is still an open question.

So many fans have supported Danny Garcia over the years because they have witnessed the dogged determination with which he plies his craft. While he is not as boisterous or flashy as other boxers, Garcia just keeps his head down, works hard every day, and lets the results on fight night speak for themselves. Over the last decade plus, if there was a fight card with Danny Garcia on it, you knew you would be getting a quality, competitive fight.

With the caliber of his resume, maybe artists should start planning where in Brooklyn Danny Garcia’s mural should be painted.

Garcia first earned world championship gold when he defeated Erik Morales in March 2012 to become the WBC super lightweight champion. In his first title defense, Garcia was a greater than 4-to-1 underdog against Amir Khan. Despite sustaining a cut over his right eye in the second round, Garcia knocked Khan down three times on his way to a 4th-round TKO victory that forced fight fans to take notice of Danny “Swift” Garcia.

Following his win over Khan, Garcia had a rematch with Erik Morales, headlining the first boxing event at the brand-new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Garcia won the rematch decisively with a fourth-round knockout, sending the legendary Morales into retirement via a venomous left hook.

Garcia was an underdog once again in his next title defense against Argentine Lucas Matthysse. At the time, Matthysse was a guy nobody wanted to face, a tenacious fighter who had won by knockout 94% of the time. But Garcia handled Matthysse in a way no one had done before, knocking Matthysse down for the first time in his pro career en route to a unanimous decision victory.

Garcia later became a world champion in a second division when he defeated Robert Guerrero to capture the WBC welterweight championship in 2016.

For his career, Danny Garcia was 11-4 against current or former world champions, beating contemporaries including Zab Judah, Paulie Malignaggi, and Lamont Peterson. Garcia lost decisions to Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, and Errol Spence Jr.

Last year, Garcia attempted to wrest the middleweight championship from Erislandy Lara in a bid to become a world champion in a third division, which proved to be a bridge too far. For Brooklyn fight fans, it was not a performance that a great like Garcia should have gone out on. Thankfully, he did not.

Whenever Danny Garcia does retire from in-ring competition, he will remain in the fight game as a full-time promoter with his company, Swift Promotions, which put on Saturday’s card. In a boxing promotional landscape with as much uncertainty and general consternation as any time in recent memory, hopefully, Danny Garcia can be a steady hand and a strong presence. When exactly Garcia hangs up his mouthpiece to become a mouthpiece will be resolved soon.

While it was his final act in Brooklyn after the fight, Garcia was noncommittal about whether he would hang up his gloves for good. “At the end of the day, I’m healthy and I’ve got a beautiful family. I don’t know if I’m done yet.”

Those are things that anyone can be thankful for. Danny Garcia continuing to be involved with boxing in any capacity is something fans can be grateful for as well.