‘If anything the two-year layoff helped me’: Garcia feeling rejuvenated heading into Lara fight

Danny Garcia says his body feels refreshed after taking an unexpectedly long hiatus.

Danny Garcia speaks to boxing media about his September 14 fight with Erislandy Lara at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena — a fight that’s been a long time coming. Here, in some excerpts from Garcia, he speaks about feeling fresh after an extended hiatus and believing he’ll be in great condition to put on a great performance come fight night.

Garcia on what kind of performance we can expect to see after his long layoff

“You can expect to see the same Danny Garcia. I feel good, I been feeling good sparring, been feeling good training. I really feel like nothing’s really changed, if anything the two-year layoff helped me. You know, my body feels recovered, I have no injuries, my mind feels good, my body feels good so I feel like we’re going to see a great Danny Garcia that night.”

On how he anticipates dealing with Lara’s style

“He’s definitely a tricky fighter, he’s one of the best boxers you can get in the ring with, skill wise. I got my work cut out for me but we’re training, I got the right game plan, we’re going to go in there and execute.”

On moving up to 160 after one fight at 154

“Going into that Benavidez fight, actually before that fight I think Lara came up in the conversation when I was speaking to my team and I said ‘look, let me get this Benavidez fight to test the water at 154’ and then I think Lara agreed to fight me at 155 but two years went past and — the fight was always agreed to it just took time because, I guess, the Showtime thing...”

On if Lara being 41 will help him overcome the move up in weight

“Yeah, definitely. I know if I feel the pain — I know I’m 36 — he definitely got to feel the pain at 41, waking up all sore. But I feel good. I feel rejuvenated, I feel like I haven’t lost a step really. I’m in here sparring with the young guys, veterans, everyone.”