Boxing’s newest promoter Danny Garcia knows exactly what chaos he’s walking into

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Danny Garcia can barely wait for the first question before answering the one I have yet to even ask. He leans back, grins and delivers his own opening line: “I’m ending this spectacular career with a W.”

The two-weight former world champion laces his gloves for one last dance this Saturday, headlining his own Swift Promotions show against Daniel Gonzalez at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The super welterweight fight is the closing act of a career written in brilliance and brutality — his twin defeats of Mexican legend Erik Morales in 2012, his ruthless finish of Amir Khan between them, and his famed night against Zab Judah in 2013 that captivated a fervent Brooklyn crowd. Garcia's later run saw him share the ring with Lucas Matthysse, Robert Guerrero, Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter and Errol Spence — a gauntlet that helped carve his name into boxing’s modern history.

Now, his next fight is his last.

This weekend is a farewell to the Barclays Center, the stage for so many of his most electrifying fight nights, and a farewell as a boxer. But it’s not a farewell to the sport.

For Garcia, the fight simply shifts from inside the ropes to outside them, as he looks to follow in the footsteps of his former promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, the Hall of Fame six-weight world champion who went on to become a frontman for Golden Boy Promotions, and Al Haymon, who guided much of Garcia’s career with Premier Boxing Champions.

Between them, De La Hoya and Haymon helped rewrite the sport — one laid a blueprint for a fighter to reinvent themselves as a promoter, and the other showed boxers how they could maximize their earning power. For Garcia, learning from both means inheriting the vision of one and the security of the other.

“Oscar has always been one of my inspirations,” Garcia told Uncrowned ahead of his swan song. “He was a great fighter, and when he was my promoter, they built me up the right way.

“I would love to, one day, be like the Golden Boys, or Top Ranks, or Matchrooms. I know I’ve got my work cut out for me — but this is a good start.”

If De La Hoya showed Garcia how a fighter could build an empire, Haymon showed him how to protect one. “That is a person who just came down from heaven, onto your lap, and just changed your life. Really," Garcia said.

“There are only two people I owe the world to: Al Haymon, and my father, Angel Garcia.”

Garcia said he’ll borrow lessons from Haymon’s quiet influence, but Swift Promotions must have its own identity, if only because "you cannot replicate Al Haymon," he said, "You have to go your own way." As for Angel, Garcia carved out a means for his next venture to continue being a family affair. “Pops is already involved and already there," he said. "He owns shares in the company. So no matter how it goes, he’ll be alright.”

Though his education came from two of the game’s greats, Garcia is well aware that the sport he's about to inherit as a promoter looks markedly different to the one he entered as a fighter. Boxing today is fragmented, and broadcasters have fled. It’s a far cry from the channels Garcia fought on in his heyday, from the pinnacle of premium platforms like HBO Sports and Showtime Sports.

Isaiah Vazquez via Getty Images

This era is “definitely different,” Garcia said. “There's less shows, and the streaming era is tough. I think it's all about timing and being in the right place at the right time. You never know what these streaming companies need. They might need diversity, and they might need sports. So you just got to build your company up and see where you land one day.

“A dream of mine is for HBO and Showtime to come back, as I think those were the best days in boxing, to be honest with you. Boxing had a home for 40 years, combined. Fighters really had a home. And I hope the sport finds a new home.”

The regulation of the sport appears set to change, too.

On Wednesday, the California State Athletic Commission unanimously voted to endorse the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act, despite overwhelming opposition from the public, including from many ex-UFC fighters. 

If the bill gets passed through Congress, it will allow Zuffa Boxing to create a Unified Boxing Organization (UBO) within the sport, run its own rankings system, award its own championship, and organize its own events — much like how UFC operates in MMA. 

Speaking this week on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show," Garcia warned of what could lay ahead. "You can't double dip," he said. "That's what the Ali Act protects, because you can't be a manager and a promoter [like the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act would allow].

“I feel, if anything, the fighters should be on that table. He should know what's in that [event] budget, because if they tell the promoter $1 million, [and] they come back and tell you $500,000 — that's stealing. Boxing shouldn't be like [the UFC]. If there's $20,000 in the pot, [fighters] should know that. You're risking your life.

“A fighter should be compensated for his worth, and he should know what it is.”

Should Congress follow the CSAC’s lead, the sport’s structure could change forever.

From HBO headliner to independent promoter, Garcia has lived every side of the boxing business, similar to his one-time mentor De La Hoya, and therefore knows the grind — and the gamble — boxers face when they make their walks to the ring. His career has already been gilded with the kind of achievements that secure a fighter’s place in boxing’s memory and, perhaps, the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He unified world titles at super lightweight, climbed to claim another championship at welterweight, and delivered statement wins that echoed through sold-out arenas from in Brooklyn to Las Vegas.

Now, he wants that for the next generation.

He wants to take young prospects like Quincey Williams, Cristian Cangelosi and 16-year-old David Garcia, and help them realize their full potentials, just like how De La Hoya and Haymon helped him realize his. Where once Garcia was the student, learning from his father and his promoters, he has now become the teacher — a fighter passing on the blueprint to the next generation.

So what kind of fighters does he want on his growing Swift Promotions roster? “You definitely need [to be] an entertainer, and obviously he has to be able to fight, and have that ‘it’ factor,” Garcia said. “Coming from a good family is also a solid foundation.”

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Garcia was renowned for his overhand right followed by a left hook. And, ever the fighter, he describes the prerequisite ingredients for boxing stardom as “a combination,” too. “Whatever trauma you've been through in your life, you have to use that for motivation to be a world champion,” he said. “All the greats had that chip on their shoulder, as they turned their trauma into legendary stuff."

On the reality of stardom in today's era, and whether TikTok and YouTube have become the modern day HBO and Showtime, Garcia added: “I think a lot of these fighters don't understand it's not just being a fighter. The best fighters always knew about marketing, but you need to use Instagram, TikTok, to promote yourself and work on your craft.

“Some fighters are waiting around, looking for a promoter to promote them — and if you're waiting, it'll probably never happen.

"You are your biggest promoter. Your personality really means a lot. Some people are quiet, and so you have to go knock someone out. But I'll hit the bag [on video], then dance like 'Scarface' and I've got 100,000 likes. You have to know how to be an entertainer and just have fun with it.”

These are lessons born of experience. Where Garcia once carried the chip on his own shoulder, he now sees it as the fuel that will shape his champions of tomorrow. But one thing is for sure — win or lose, there will be no man on Oct. 15 who has more fun than Garcia. And hearing him talk, it's still only getting started.

This is his farewell fight, sure. But once this weekend is over, he wants to give back to the sport that gave him so much.

“To make a champion, and make somebody else's dream come true, there’ll be no better feeling," Garcia said.

Though there’s no title on the line Saturday, Garcia’s next championship may well be one he wraps around the waist of one of his rising stars, crowned under the same Brooklyn lights that once crowned him.