Boxing: Danny Garcia Ready to Show Different Side

There is, believe it or not, a wacky side to Danny Garcia.

Those close to him, the ones who watched him grow up in the ring, know that the former world junior welter-weight champion can be downright silly, just like his father, Angel Garcia. He can also be lethal like his dad, too.

It’s a side Garcia hides well, buried under layers of self-control and mental discipline, but “Swift” knows that “wild button” exists. He knows when he can press it.

Maybe Garcia will unleash some of that on national TV against southpaw Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero (33-3-1, 18 KOs) when they fight for the vacant WBC welterweight title on Saturday night at Staples Center in Los Angeles via Premier Boxing Champions on Fox. In the meantime, Swift is staying subdued.

One thing is different this time: Garcia (31-0, 18 KOs) is going to be the overwhelming favorite.

“I’m going to fight Guerrero the same way I fight everyone else. I approach every fight with the same mindset, and that’s to go in there and get the victory no matter who I fight,” Garcia said. “I really don’t get caught up in who the underdog is, and if I listened to the fans, I would already have a loss on my record.”

Garcia looks out over the 147-pound landscape and feels his body of work deserves top-10 pound-for-pound attention. It bothers him that’s not mentioned in the same breath as the Terence Crawfords of the world.

“There are a lot of politics in the sport and it’s basically whoever they like at the time,” Garcia said. “That’s how they rank you. I don’t know what it is. I was the best at 140 for three years. I defended my title five times and was the underdog in two of my championship fights.

“To me, I should have been pound-for-pound a long time ago. I’ll just keep on proving myself at 147 and once I win a title, no one can say anything. I don’t really pay that much attention to it, but I see things and who’s pound-for-pound and question how that is.”

A dominant performance against Guerrero would be a nice selling point. Angel, his trainer, has no doubts about his son. Angel likes how Danny looks, and the fact that he’s not cutting weight -- as he had to do in 2014 -- has been a blessing. It’s made Garcia much stronger and given him ample time to plunge into training and strategy, as opposed to training to cut weight, like he did against Lamont Peterson.

“I want to see Danny use his legs more,” Angel admitted. “When he does that, he’s untouchable. I’m not say-ing he’s running, I just see everything come together when he’s able to move. That comes with the weight. He’s a new man in town. He’s not fighting the weight anymore. A happy fighter is a great fighter. We’re learning as we move along.”

As for Guerrero, both Garcias respect him. They want this to be a big year for Swift. They would like to get into the ring four times this year. Beating Guerrero would be a great start.

“Danny has to fight to get his name more out there,” Angel said. “We know things have changed. Like Danny said, it’s the ‘Danny Garcia Show.’ Danny is a father now. It’s made him more of a man, and now he’s working harder for the future. He’s working for his daughter now.”

Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.