8/3/06 -    article by By PETER LIM


Boxing: Garcia making up for lost time

A boxer since his preteens, Daniel Garcia had compiled an amateur record of 256-25 when he decided to turn pro in 2001. Unfortunately, as much as he tried, Garcia was nowhere as prolific in the professional ranks as he was as an amateur.

Hampered by inadequate management, Garcia simply could not get as many fights as he wanted to pad his record and gain valuable early experience as a prizefighter. The fights that were offered to him were few, far between and often at the last minute against more experienced boxers. By October 2003, Garcia's record was an undistinguished 3-3-1 (2 KOs). Disillusioned with the sport, Garcia did not fight again for 20 months.

In stepped Louisiana-based manager Kerry Daigle in 2005 and Garcia's stagnated career suddenly received a jump start. Since signing with Daigle last year Garcia has won all four of his bouts, three by knockout, raising his record to 7-3-1 (5 KOs). Hoping to make up for lost time, Garcia recently took a leave of absence from work to box full time.

"I want to be as active as possible," Garcia said. "I'd like to step it up. If it's an early knockout I'd like to fight again in a week-and-a-half or two weeks. I'm in shape already and if I knock them out early, there's no sense in sitting around and waiting for another fight to come up two months later. That's what Kerry does for me. He's kept me very active."

Garcia's comeback hit a speed bump early this year when his long-time trainer and uncle John Alvarado passed away from a heart attack. The silver lining to Alvarado's death came in the form of veteran boxing guru Termite Watkins, who took over training duties at Frank's Boxing Club. A former lightweight contender, Watkins began turning Garcia from a one-dimensional infighter into a more-rounded pugilist.

"The transition's kind of hard, to be honest with you, because I'm so used to being an inside fighter and training a lot on inside work," Garcia said. "Now we're mixing it up and working from different angles outside, boxing inside, footwork and just incorporating it all into the whole package."

Garcia's newfound versatility surfaced at his last fight on June 17 in New Orleans when he sent Thomas Grissom to the canvas three times with a variation of punches, stopping him in the first round.

"First it was a jab, straight right, left hook to the body and then left hook to the head," Garcia said. "The last left hook broke his jaw. While he was going down I caught him with an uppercut too, which helped."

Watkins said Garcia has adhered to his no-nonsense standards and training conditions thus far. The challenge, he said, is to remold and retool a boxer who has been accustomed to fighting a certain way for so long. Garcia though, Watkins added, has proven that old dogs do in fact learn new tricks.

"We're having to go backwards to have him mature to where he should be. He's got all the potential and talent in the world," Watkins said. "I'm teaching him basic fundamentals. Fights are won with basic fundamentals. His basic fundamentals have been really off so that's what we went back to. He's been like a puppy dog, when he does something good he gets all excited and he wants to keep working and keep working."

Both boxer and trainer agree that it will be at least a year and a half before Garcia is ready to fight on the world stage. Garcia is still fighting four- and six-round bouts but hopes to graduate to the eight- and 10-round level by early next year.

"I think that Daniel has the of potential to upset a lot of people," Watkins said. "We're trying to take our time. We're not in a rush. If the opportunity comes, we might sneak him in there because he's the type a lot of people call a sleeper, on any given night he can beat anybody. It's just got to be that given night. He's got the potential of doing great things. We've just got to start slowly pulling that potential out."

Garcia has three regular sparring partners, all long-time friends, with different styles to bring the most out of him. Bigger and stronger than Garcia, junior middleweight Chase Shields, 18-0-1 (10 KOs), tests Garcia's chin with his power and forces him to work his way past Shields' longer reach. Featherweight Jesus Cerda, 12-1 (3 KOs), on the other hand, is smaller but faster than so he helps Garcia deal with speed. And junior welterweight Danny Reyes 16-11-1 (10 KOs), is almost a carbon copy of Garcia in terms of size and style.

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