Danny Garcia Looking to Get Right Against Paulie Malignaggi

Danny Garcia wears a pensive look, furrowing his brow as he ponders the question: Where has he been the last few years?

“Swift” knows he hasn’t been right, hasn’t been close to the devastating, impactful fighter he was on that special night he tore through Lucas Matthysse in September 2013, when no one thought he could.

Garcia (30-0, 17 KOs) vows to be the closet he’ll be to 100-percent physically when he meets tricky boxer Paulie Malignaggi (33-6, 7 KOs) at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., this Saturday night to headline Premier Boxing Champions on ESPN.

Saturday will mark Garcia’s welterweight debut, after trying to make 140 pounds became too strenuous the last few years. Garcia has been at 140 for almost a decade. The strain to cut weight began to interfere with his training camps and, consequently, impinge on his performances in the ring against Mauricio Herrera -- who some thought beat Garcia -- Rod Salka and Lamont Peterson.

In those last three fights, Garcia admits, he wasn’t right. His training was more concentrated on losing weight than it was building a strategy. By the latter portion of those fights, an enervated Garcia was content to just hang on. That didn’t fit Garcia’s attitude.

“I would say I was at around 65, 70 percent of what I’m capable of in my last three fights,” Garcia said. “That’s just not me. I don’t like fighting that way. I like to go into fights prepared. I like to feel I can go a whole 12 without questioning whether or not I have anything left in the later rounds. I haven’t really felt 100-percent since the Matthysse fight. To be honest with you, I felt like my 140 days were over after I beat Matthysse. After I made 140 for that fight, I felt like that was all I had left. I should have made the move [up to welterweight] then.

“But I just kept trying to make weight, and it affected me. Making the 140-pound weight division was forcing me to fight one way, and that was to come forward, because my body wasn’t feeling strong enough anymore to be athletic, or do anything else I wanted to do in the ring, like use my legs and feet. I know two years ago I should have moved up to 147.”

Garcia said he began to think more in the ring, something also unusual for him, considering his extensive amateur past. Nothing was coming by instinct. His punches weren’t natural. He tended to push instead of punch, which lacked snap because he had no leg power. The experience forced him to rethink a few things.

“You go into fights thinking you can stop anybody, and in the back of my mind, I started to think I’m not strong enough anymore when these guys aren’t going down,” said the 27-year-old Garcia, who will become a father for the first time 10 days after the Malignaggi fight. “I think my attitude is what kept me going. I just refused to lose. I’m older now. I know my strengths and weaknesses. I know what I have to work on. And it bothers me a little bit. Some people thought I got a break against Herrera. I didn’t. I beat him. I heard the same when I beat Peterson. Think about it: I beat world-class fighters and I wasn’t anywhere near as good as I could have been. And people were wondering if I lost something. Yeah, I had to lose some weight. Going into this fight, I feel strong, the strongest I’ve felt years.”

Going into the bout with Peterson, Garcia was also coming off of an eight-month layoff, the longest in his career. Though Malignaggi is 1-2 in over his last three fights, “The Magic Man” still poses problems. His losses came against Adrien Broner and Shawn Porter, who stopped Malignaggi in his last fight. It was the first time in four years Malignaggi was stopped, and the third time overall in his career.

“The only difference about Danny is the weight,” said Angel Garcia, Danny’s trainer and father. “Everyone sees him in the last few fights and think they can box and run from Danny. They think boxing Danny is the way to beat him. Danny had two fights against Peterson and Herrera that some may have seen the other way. Danny’s been 140 pounds for nine years, including amateurs. His fight wasn’t in the ring the last few years. His fight was in the gym losing weight. In the end, I know Danny’s hand will be raised.”

Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.