Danny Garcia will return to the ring for the first time in over two years September 14, live on DAZN in the US and Canada, when he challenges WBA middleweight world champion Erislandy Lara.
Although Garcia is well aware of Lara's pointed boxing, he wants the Cuban to know about his penchant for fighting.
"At the end of the day when you’re tired and you're going into those championship rounds, it’s all about who got the most will and yeah, he can box but everybody know Danny Garcia can fight," Garcia told the media as part of the Canelo Alvarez-Edgar Berlanga New York City press conference Monday.
Though Garcia wanted to put Lara on notice of his brand of Philadelphia fighting, his father/trainer Angel Garcia vowed that Garcia will get the job done with his ring IQ as well.
"We gotta be smart, we gotta play chess not checkers," Angel Garcia told DAZN News. "And then we got to hurt him.
"We got to be faster than him, touch him to the body because he doesn't like the body. All his career, he never liked the body. He hides the body. We're going to go out there and get that WBA [title]. We're going to earn it."
Garcia himself isn't concerned about his lengthy layoff as he produced a majority decision against José Benavidez Jr. all the way back in July 2022. But he understands the criticism of it.
"There's always going to be questions about anything," Garcia told DAZN News. "Even when I was active, it was 'he's the underdog, he's going to lose.' It's always going to be something so that's what makes boxing interesting. You just never know.
"You just got to sit back and look for the results."
The result Garcia will be targeting is becoming a three-division world champion, having already been a world titleholder at welterweight and super lightweight.
At 41, Lara (30-3-3, 18 KOs) has won five straight fights including three consecutive knockouts, having stopped Michael Zerafa in the second round of their March bout.
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