Two-division world champion Danny Garcia will take on Jose Benavidez Jr. this Saturday night.
The event headlines the Premier Boxing Champions card from Barclays Center in Brooklyn. It will air live on Showtime.
After time off, the former 140 and 147 pound champion is ready to return.
“Training has been going great. We’ve been in the gym for three months straight so we’re towards the end now and we feel fantastic,” he said. “The time off was very important. After you’ve been fighting for a long time, I’ve been fighting world champions for the last ten years, I realized that my body felt great, but my mind felt foggy. It felt tired. It didn’t feel sharp. I knew that I needed my mind to rest, have some fun, and spend some time with my family. I needed time to enjoy everything that I worked so hard for, start to miss the game of boxing and then come back strong. I think that’s what I’ve done.”
This will be his ninth time fighting at Barclays Center. He finished Erik Morales back in 2012 in the arena’s first boxing main event.
“2020 was a good and bad year for me. I fought twice and made a lot of money, but at the same time, there was the pandemic. It was a tough year for me outside of the ring. It was stressful for everybody,” he said. “I just needed a break. I was tired. I trained hard at the beginning of the year and then we went through the pandemic. I had to wake myself up to train hard again for one of the biggest fights of my career.
“It just took a mental toll on me. I was mentally tired. I banged it out with Spence. He got the decision, but I was still able to go in there and scrap for 12 rounds. I knew if I just took a break and came back, nobody could touch me.