Danny Garcia’s meeting with Ivan Redkach on Saturday in Brooklyn is both a fight and a training session.
Redkach, a 10-year professional, is no pushover. The Los Angeles-based Ukrainian is coming off one of the most important victories of his career, a sixth-round knockout of Devon Alexander in June. This a real fight.
And Redkach is a southpaw, which is where the training session comes in. Garcia thought it was important to face a capable left-hander to prepare him for what might lie ahead.
The fight will be televised on Showtime.
“My mind was set on a southpaw, so after we couldn’t have the Errol Spence Jr. fight, I wanted the next tough southpaw,” said Garcia, whose tentative fight with Spence was shelved after Spence was injured in a car crash. “We’re not looking past Redkach at all, but we wanted the southpaw work for that fight or a [Manny] Pacquiao fight. We’ll be all ready when those fights come up.”
Garcia (35-2, 21 KOs) swears he isn’t overlooking Redkach (23-4-1, 18 KOs), who he recognizes is “hungry.” He can’t get to Spence or Pacquiao without beating Redkach.
And, obviously, that’s the goal. Garcia will be 32 on March 20, an age when many fighters begin to develop a sense of urgency. They want to accomplish – and earn – as much as possible before an inevitable decline.
That might be why Garcia seems rejuvenated. In his most-recent fight, in June, the former two-division titleholder looked liked a fighter trying to prove something in a seventh-round knockout of rugged Adrian Granados, who had never been stopped.
That was his first fight since he lost a close, but unanimous decision to Shawn Porter for a vacant 147-pound title in September 2018.
“I’ve been boxing for 21 years,” Garcia said. “All of the big fights and all of the pressure, sometimes you get tired of it. Sometimes it takes something happening to wake you back up. I’ve fallen in love with the sport of boxing again. Sometimes you forget what made you love the sport in the first place. Fighting is what makes me happy, though.
“My last camp before the Adrian Granados fight, I felt really good. I was happy again in this training camp. At this point in my career, I’ve been through it all already. I have to count my blessings and give my fans a great fight.”
This will be only Garcia’s fourth fight since he lost a split decision to Keith Thurman in March 2017, an average of one fight per year. That’s not the schedule of a hungry fighter.
Once upon a time, he had the opposite reputation. He fought tough opposition often.
Between 2011 and 2016, Garcia fought in succession Nate Campbell, Kendall Holt, Erik Morales (for a vacant 140-pound title), Amir Khan, Morales again, Zab Judah, Lucas Matthysse, Mauricio Herrera, Rod Salka, Lamont Peterson, Paulie Malignaggi and Robert Guerrero (for a vacant 147-pound title).
His record in those fights? 12-0. And only four of the victories came by knockout, meaning he had to find means beyond his power to beat one elite fighter after another. Thus, he became known simply as a winner.
That’s how he climbed onto some pound-for-pound lists and earned the major fights against Thurman and Porter. He’s ready to reclaim his place among the best in the sport, beginning against Redkach Saturday with an eye on a superfight before the end of the year.
“This is a very important fight for me and my future,” he said. “My future starts on Saturday night. I’ve already been in a lot of big fights in my career, so it’s nothing new to me. I know Redkach is hungry, but I know what it takes to win on this level and I’m hungry.”