Danny Garcia Living out His Dreams as Both a Boxer and a Businessman

If you’re in an apartment in Philadelphia, don’t slide on the rent.

If you do, there’s a chance that when the landlord starts banging on your door to collect, he’ll be packing a little bit more than a loud voice and a gruff manner.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Danny Garcia, real estate mogul in training.

Oh yeah, and he’s done a little boxing too.

“Yeah. We're just trying to build an empire outside of boxing,” he said. “Having different businesses, rental properties, the barber shop, the boxing gym—I got a few things going on outside the boxing ring. I’m always trying to keep building.”

That’d qualify as a precocious mindset for a typical 27-year-old.

But for a guy who’s already won title belts and made $1 million, it borders on shocking.

Mary Altaffer/Associated Press

Nevertheless, the former 140-pound king—who’ll vie for a share of the 147-pound empire on Saturday night in Los Angeles—insists it goes far beyond name-on-the-door window dressing.

“It’s me and my dad. We're business partners,” Garcia said. “Me and him handle everything. I’m part of everything that goes down. I like to know what’s happening with my money. I’m fully involved.”

When it comes to throwing a scare into past-due renters, though, he’s OK with having a hands-off role.

“I have the real estate managers handle everything,” Garcia said. “They take 10 percent of the rent that I receive from the people. I don’t handle picking up the rent or none of that stuff."

“I don’t want to pop one of my tenants.”

The son of Puerto Rican-born parents, including a father, Angel, who’s now his trainer, Garcia said the chief executive officer seed was planted during his childhood. He had visions of owning and running a business, even back then. And now that his fists have yielded a start-up nest egg, he can dabble on the side.

Garcia and Angel jointly operate a barber shop, a recording studio and six apartment units across Philadelphia. His dad also runs a car detailing shop. Perhaps not surprisingly, they have a boxing gym in the city’s Juniata Park neighborhood too. It doubles as Garcia’s own pre-fight proving ground, as he prepares for fights like Saturday’s with former two-division world champion Robert Guerrero.

“I always wanted to be an entrepreneur,” he said. “When I was a little kid I always had a vision of being a businessman, and I always had a desire to buy real estate and things like that. Boxing gave me the opportunity to do it, so I’m just taking advantage of it.”

Of course, Garcia is merely the latest link in a long chain of athletes—particularly boxers—who dabble in interests outside of the ring. Legends Jack Dempsey and Sugar Ray Robinson had their names on popular restaurants in New York City a half-century ago, and George Foreman was successful as a part-time fighter and part-time grill salesman during his second incarnation as a heavyweight in the mid-1990s.

Oscar De La Hoya set the 21st century multitasking bar when he founded Golden Boy Promotions in 2002, six years before his final appearance in the ring. Garcia was aligned with the company as he established his own professional ring reputation, then joined the Al Haymon stable a year ago.

Still, the lessons he learned haven’t been lost.

And these days, when he hears stories upon stories of athletes who made big money, spent big money and wound up with no money, he’s even more motivated to follow the prudent path.

“That’s an athlete’s nightmare, to be honest with you,” Garcia said. “I just want to make sure I do the right thing, save my money, do the right investments. Boxing is not a long-term sport, so you have to make sure you make a lot of money for the rest of your life and make the right investments outside the ring. That way, when you’re done boxing, you can live off your businesses and investments.”

Being surrounded by parents, and not just hangers-on, helps too.

Mary Altaffer/Associated Press

“It's all about having a good team and having the right people around you to help you do the right things with your money,” he said. “We're just trying to invest in things that’ll always be worth something. You can buy fancy cars and things like that, but it’s not gonna be worth nothing five years from now. We're trying to make the right investments for the long term, for when boxing’s over.”

That said, he’s not expecting it to be over any time soon.

Garcia will turn 28 in March, and if things go well this weekend, he’ll be surveying the landscape for the first defense of the vacant WBC welterweight crown he and Guerrero are pursuing.

He’s entering his ninth full year as a pro after nine years as an amateur, but Garcia claims there’s still plenty of time to not only win the belt at 147 pounds and make a run toward 154, but also to establish the Garcia brand as the best the sport has to offer.

“My body will let me know when it’s time. But as of now, I feel great. I’m in the prime of my career, and we're going to keep fighting one at a time,” he said. “I just want to continue to be a great champion and be the face of boxing. I’m going to continue to do what I do best, which is win one fight at a time."

“I was unified at 140. Saturday night’s a title fight, and that’ll make me a two-division world champion. So as far as milestones, I’m definitely got one of the best resumes of any champion in the sport. I’m one of the best in the sport of boxing.”

Somehow, though, he’s ranked No. 2 at welterweight by the WBC behind Amir Khan, a man he stopped in four rounds in 2012. And he's placed fourth in the division by the Independent World Boxing Rankings, trailing 37-year-old Manny Pacquiao, 32-year-old Tim Bradley and 29-year-old Kell Brook.

BoxRec.com has him ranked No. 17 in its pound-for-pound rankings, where he’s not only in back of those four, but also trails comparative newcomers Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter.

Garcia is 6-0 in career title fights, while Thurman, Porter and Brook combined are 5-1. Khan is 6-2 with losses to both Garcia and Lamont Peterson—whom Garcia beat last April.

If you ask him if it's a slight, the executive in him will insist it doesn’t matter.

“I’m just focused on being the best I can be. At the end of the day, people will rate me or demean me. I’ll leave that up to them. At the end of the day, I know I’m one of the best, and that’s all that matters,” he said. “It is what it is. You’ve got people who write good about me. You’ve got people who write bad about me. That’s just the way it is. It’s how the sport is.”

Even as the fighter in him sneeringly waits for a chance to prove it—again.

“There’s a lot of great matches to be made,” Garcia said. “Only time will tell.”

Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained firsthand. Garcia-Guerrero headlines a Fox-televised card that begins at 8 p.m. ET from the Staples Center.