The last couple of years have seen Danny Garcia fall back down to earth. A narrow defeat to Keith Thurman in March 2017 saw Garcia lose his WBC welterweight title, and his undefeated record as a professional boxer. That defeat would have hurt Garcia, and that pain was compounded 18 months later as he lost out again to Shawn Porter in a bid to reclaim that WBC title.

However, the couple of victories in between those defeats, most recently in April of this year with a TKO win over Adrian Granados prove that Danny Garcia still has plenty left to offer. One of the most intriguing aspects of boxing is how great champions respond to setbacks, and with those two defeats Danny Garcia has a job on his hands to prove to the world that he can win titles again, that the boxer that went 33-0 is still a force to be reckoned with.

The prospective clash between Danny Garcia and Mikey Garcia offers Danny the chance to regain a strong footing in the welterweight division. In a fight where both boxers will be especially motivated, you could argue that it is Danny who has the most to prove, the established welterweight specialist up against the pretender to the weight class. For those who bet on Danny Garcia vs Mikey Garcia on Betfair, it could prove difficult to pick a winner between these two fighters with differing motivations.

For Danny, it is all about getting back to the top of the pile in welterweight boxing. His ability is undoubted and unquestionable, and perhaps the key to establishing himself as one of welterweight boxing’s most formidable fighters is in the mental side of things. Boxing, as with any individual sport, requires strong mental fortitude and an obsessive desire to improve.

Whether or not he would admit it himself, Danny’s confidence will have undoubtedly been bruised by these two defeats in the last two years. For him, it is about restoring that belief in his own abilities, and victory over Mikey would go a long way towards doing that.

In Mikey’s case, his motivations will be more about reaching new heights than securing some kind of redemptive triumph. That said, his loss to Errol Spence in his welterweight debut will have hurt him also, but this is a fighter who is one of the finest of the lower divisions, a boxer who is seeking new challenges having conquered the lower weight classes.

Mikey will be a highly charged, formidable opponent for Danny, but his inexperience is something that must be honed in on if Danny is to triumph. Patience will play a key role in the fight, and it will be important that Danny does not snatch at opportunities, but rather bides his time and allows his greater experience, not to mention his greater height and reach, to do the talking.

It is a fight that is interesting for a number of reasons, and Mikey’s ambition to better himself is one of the main attractions of this bout, but in Danny Garcia we have the opportunity to see a fighter reinvent himself and rediscover his former glory. This fight is a chance to prove to his opponent that welterweight boxing is not for the faint-hearted.