A farewell to Danny Garcia, Brooklyn’s adopted son

Danny Garcia (38-4, 22 KO) provided a fitting addition to his first fight at the Barclays Center in a night billed as a final bow against Brooklyn. Garcia used his trademark left hook to score a fourth-round knockout over Danny Gonzalez (22-5-1, 7 KO), and a same-round knockout 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 city, it was a farewell to a consummate professional who thrilled fans over the course of more than 40 professional fights. Garcia is from Philadelphia, but the Philly native has made Brooklyn his adopted home, with his fight against Daniel Gonzalez marking Garcia’s tenth appearance at the Barclays Center.

Just like Brooklyn’s iconic piece of architecture, Danny Garcia helped bridge a new generation of boxing fans to New York’s biggest city. On 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, prizefighters and Wall Street traders

We come together on the metro cars

Diversity unites, whoever you are

…

For his final bout at the Barclays Center, Garcia was accompanied to the ring by two top young fighters, Stephen Fulton and Teofilmo Lopez, from Philadelphia and Brooklyn respectively. Whether or not this was Garcia’s last 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 determination with which he practices his art. Although he is not as loud or flashy as other boxers, Garcia just keeps his head down, works hard every day and lets the results speak for themselves on fight night. Over the last decade plus, if there was a fight card with Danny Garcia on it, you knew you were going to get 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 captured 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 more than 4-to-1 underdog against Amir Khan. Despite a cut over his right eye in the second round, Garcia knocked Khan down three times en route 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, who headlined the first boxing event at the brand new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Garcia won the rematch decisively with a fourth-round knockout, retiring the legendary Morales via a vicious left hook.

Garcia was again an underdog in his next title defense against Argentine Lucas Matthysse. Back then, Matthysse was a guy no one wanted to look in the eye, a tenacious fighter who won by knockout 94% of the time. But Garcia handled Matthysse in a way no one had before, knocking Matthysse down for the first time in his professional career en route to a unanimous decision victory.

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

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

Last year, Garcia tried to wrest the middleweight championship from Erislandy Lara in an attempt to become a world champion in a third division, which was a bridge too far. For Brooklyn fight fans, this was not a show that a great like Garcia should have gone out on. Fortunately he didn’t.

When 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 headlined Saturday’s card. In a boxing promotional landscape with as much uncertainty and general consternation as any time in recent memory, Danny Garcia can hopefully be a steady hand and a strong presence. When exactly Garcia hangs up his mouthpiece to become a mouthpiece will soon be resolved.

While this was his last performance in Brooklyn after the fight, Garcia was noncommittal about whether he would be hanging up his gloves for good. “At the end of the day, I’m healthy and I have a beautiful family. I don’t know if I’m done.”

These are things anyone can be thankful for. Danny Garcia still being involved in boxing in any capacity is something fans can be thankful for as well.