It was 11 months since Danny Garcia last fought when he faced Brandon Rios in a WBC welterweight title eliminator and given the context, Garcia believes that fight was enough for him to knock off ring rust and prepare him for Shawn Porter.
On a recent conference call, Garcia spoke on that February fight against Rios. Garcia knocked out Rios in the ninth round of their fight, winning a title eliminator which eventually turned into a fight against Porter for the vacant WBC welterweight title.
The two boxers will fight in the main event of the Showtime Championship Boxing card taking place at the Barclays Center on September 8. On that conference call, Garcia told Fightful that he rated his performance against Rios a B, but it was a fight to knock off said ring rust after not fighting since losing to Keith Thurman in March 2017.
“You know, I’d give myself a B. I was off a year before that, I was off a year before that fight. I felt like I knocked off a lot of rust. I think I did real good for being a year off and winning by knockout was definitely the goal. I felt like that was the only way to win that fight by knocking him out. That made me feel good. That made me feel real happy. I’m back where I need to be. I’m active, I just fought in February and I always say that an active Danny Garcia is a dangerous Danny Garcia,” Garcia said.
However, since that 2017 fight against Thurman, a slew of welterweights emerged to the top of the division, mainly WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford and IBF champion Errol Spence Jr. With one of the sport's most flashiest divisions getting new superstars to potentially create fresh and exciting matchups, Garcia said he would be up for fighting those two after beating Porter and winning the WBC title.
“Yeah definitely [I would be interested in fighting those guys]. It’s always exciting to be in a division that is full of talent. At the end of the day, like I said before, I got to go out and get the WBC belt, get this win and I’ll fight whoever. The biggest fight, the biggest payday, I’ll fight whoever,” Garcia said.
This will be Garcia's second time challenging for the WBC welterweight title with the first attempt taking place in 2016 when he defeated Robert Guerrero to win the title. The fight against Porter will headline a televised tripleheader that will also feature Yordenis Ugas vs. Cesar Barrionuevo in a WBC welterweight eliminator.
