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Danny Garcia believes he has another championship run left in his 34-year-old body.
Garcia will attempt to start proving that when he ends a 19-month layoff and makes his debut in the 154-pound division versus Jose Benavidez Jr. on Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. If the heavily favored Philadelphia native beats Benavidez, he expects to get a higher-profile junior middleweight assignment next.
“There’s a lot of big fights out there for me,” Garcia told BoxingScene.com. “There’s a Charlo fight, there’s a Lara fight, there’s a Thurman fight. There’s definitely a lot of big fights out there for me that make a lot of sense right now.”
Jermell Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs), the fully unified 154-pound champion, will make a mandated defense of his WBO junior middleweight championship against Australia’s Tim Tszyu in his next fight. If Houston’s Charlo defeats Tszyu (21-0, 15 KOs), he’ll likely have to make another mandated defense of his IBF junior middleweight title against Russia’s Bakhram Murtazaliev (20-0, 15 KOs) unless he gives up his IBF belt.
Lara, however, would have the flexibility to move back down from middleweight to the 154-pound division to fight Garcia if the payday were worthwhile.
The Cuban southpaw holds the WBA’s world 160-pound championship. The WBA’s “super” 160-pound champion, Gennadiy Golovkin (42-1-1, 36 KOs), has been ordered to fight Lara (29-3-3, 17 KOs), but the 39-year-old Lara seems more suited to compete at the 154-pound limit.
Though Garcia mentioned Charlo first because he owns the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO 154-pound crowns and Lara second, a rematch with Thurman appeals to the former junior welterweight and welterweight champion from a very personal perspective. Thurman (30-1, 22 KOs, 1 NC) dealt Garcia his first professional defeat – a 12-round split decision in March 2017 at Barclays Center.
The 33-year-old Thurman remains a welterweight, yet Garcia thinks his rival will move up to junior middleweight soon enough.
“I believe so, because I think 154 is probably his natural weight, too,” Garcia said. “He just squeezes down to 147.”
Garcia has wanted to fight Thurman again for more than five years and hopes it finally happens as they head toward the ends of their respective careers.
“I think that’s a great fight and it makes perfect sense,” Garcia said. “Man, that right there, avenging that loss would definitely do a lot for my career. I feel like it’s very important for me to come back and get that win.”
Despite having interesting options if he wins Saturday night, Garcia acknowledged that he isn’t certain how much longer he would like to fight.
“I’m just taking it one fight at a time,” Garcia said. “I’m enjoying the moment. When I feel like I can’t do it no more, competing at a high level, I won’t fight no more. But right now, I’m excited for July 30th and we’re just gonna take it one fight at a time.”
The 12-round battle between Garcia (36-3, 21 KOs) and Benavidez (27-1-1, 18 KOs) will headline Showtime’s three-fight telecast Saturday night (9 p.m. ET).
This tripleheader will begin with a 10-rounder in which junior welterweight knockout artist Gary Antuanne Russell (15-0, 15 KOs) will encounter Cuban veteran Rances Barthelemy (29-1-1, 15 KOs, 1 NC). Following the Russell-Barthelemy bout, Brooklyn’s Adam Kownacki (20-2, 15 KOs) will try to end a two-fight losing streak when the heavyweight meets Turkey’s Ali Demirezen (16-1, 12 KOs) in the 10-round co-feature.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.