NEW YORK — Danny Garcia will step foot into Barclays Center on Saturday night with his name brightly displayed on the marquee opposite of Ivan Redkach. However, he'll do so knowing it should have been Errol Spence Jr. scrawled across his name, instead.
"Exactly," Garcia told DAZN News on Wednesday. "That would have been the fight this weekend."
During the fall, Garcia and Spence were close to cementing the fight, which would have been for Spence's IBF/WBC welterweight titles. Spence even made a post about it on his Instagram account in late September. However, just over a week later, Spence had a horrific one-car crash, in which his Ferrari flipped multiple times in Dallas, according to reports. Although Spence, 29, miraculously survived with minor injuries considering the nature of the violent accident, any thoughts of him facing Garcia in January were instantly dashed and shelved indefinitely.
That tested Garcia.
"I had to adjust mentally," Garcia offered. "I didn't know how bad it was at first, so I had to wait to see if he'd be OK for the fight. Obviously he wasn't, so we have to stay busy. As the champion, as a fighter, we have to stay busy. The show must go on."
And the show is going on via this WBC welterweight title eliminator against Redkach, instead of what would have been a crack at Spence's WBC/IBF titles in one shot.
Naturally, the fight against Redkach lacks the cachet that Garcia and Spence would have carried into a raucous Brooklyn ready to be on the receiving end of boxing fireworks. But Garcia says to be disappointed would be "selfish" on his behalf, given what Spence went through and survived.
"It was a bad accident, so I wasn't really let down that much because it was life and death for him," Garcia said about Spence's predicament last October and in subsequent months. "You just hope that somebody's OK and when they get better, then you make the fight."
Spence looked well, while being interviewed by "PBC on FOX" last month.
If Garcia (35-2, 21 KOs) handles his business against a rugged Redkach (23-4-1, 1 no-contest) this weekend, he'll be knocking at Spence's doorstep to make good on the fight that never happened.
And Garcia is comfortable knowing that's "The Truth."