[3] Garcia was born with a sixth toe on his right foot which he was embarrassed of as a child, but jokingly says that it gives him a competitive advantage to stay on balance during fights.
[citation needed] Garcia made his professional debut on November 17, 2007, at the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey against Mike Denby.
On January 11, 2008, at the Morongo Casino, Resort & Spa in Cabazon, California, Garcia defeated Marlo Córtez by second-round knockout.
With precise accurate punches, he disabled Cortéz, dropping him with a left hook early in the second round, forcing the referee to stop the contest.
[10] On the undercard of the Bernard Hopkins–Kelly Pavlik fight for the world middleweight championship at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, Garcia stopped Dean Nash by technical knockout after three knockdowns in the third round.
On August 15, 2011, Garcia won the vacant NABO Jr. welterweight belt in Los Angeles fighting on the HBO PPV undercard of Hopkins vs. Dawson II, on a split decision over former champion Kendall Holt.
It was announced that Garcia would get his first world title opportunity, challenging Mexican legend and Ring Top 10 light welterweight, Érik Morales (52-7, 36 KOs) for the WBC super lightweight championship in another chapter of the infamous "Puerto Rico vs. Mexico" boxing rivalry.
As the fight progressed, Garcia gained control, scoring a knockdown in the eleventh round before receiving a unanimous decision in his favor.
At the pre-fight press conference on 4 June, Khan and Garcia's fathers got into a heated exchange resulting in both fighters promising to knock the other out on 14 July.
Khan tried to rally and stay in the fight, but with forty-eight seconds left in the fourth round Garcia knocked him down for a third time.
Bayless, after considering Khan's position, decided that the champion had taken enough punishment and stopped the fight, awarding a technical knockout victory.
[20] On August 23, 2012, Garcia agreed to fight Ring top 10 light welterweight, Érik Morales (52-8, 36 KOs) in a rematch.
[23] In front of 11,112 at the newly opened Barclays Center, Garcia retained his WBC, WBA (Super) & The Ring title's by knocking out Morales with a thunderous left hook in the fourth round.
"[24][25][26] On November 6, Golden Boy Promotions announced a deal had been reached for Garcia to defend his world titles against former two-weight champion Zab Judah (42-7, 29 KOs), which the Barclays Center being the front runners to host the event on January 19, 2013.
[31] On July 18, 2013, it was confirmed that Garcia would meet Argentine slugger Lucas Matthysse (34-2, 32 KOs) on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather vs. Canelo Alvarez superfight September 14, 2013 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Matthysse won several of the early rounds, putting heavy pressure on the champion by utilizing speed and punching power.
[37] An official press conference took place in February 2014 to announce Garcia's next title defence, against veteran boxer Mauricio Herrera (20-3, 7 KOs).
[43] On June 24, 2014, it was announced that García would fight lightweight contender Rod Salka (19-3, 3 KOs) at the Barclays Center on August 9 on a Showtime triple-header, which would also included Lamont Peterson vs. Edgar "El Chamaco" Santana.
WBC president explained, as it was a voluntary and Salka was not ranked, they would not sanction the fight, however if Garcia was to lose, the title would be declared vacant.
I got to do what’s best for me.”[52][53] On January 14, 2015, NBC announced a partnership with Premier Boxing Champions to air premium fights on network television.
Both fighters had something to prove as Garcia was coming off an extremely tough fight with Mauricio Herrera and Peterson was still reeling from a knockout loss to Lucas Matthysse in 2013.
Garcia maintained a steady attack in the last three rounds of the fight while Peterson began coming forward and throwing everything he had (possibly suspecting he was trailing).
Garcia eventually forced the referee to stop the fight in round 7 following a barrage of punches which pinned Vargas against the ropes.
He also went on to state, if Porter or Garcia declined to take part in the interim title fight, he would move on to the next highest available ranked fighter.
[86] According to reports on October 3, a deal was close to being made between Garcia and former champion and WBC #15 Brandon Ríos (34-3-1, 25 KOs) to take place in December 2017.
[88] The fight was confirmed a week later to take place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Paradise, Nevada on Showtime.
The last time Garcia fought at Mandalay Bay, he knocked out Amir Khan to unify the light welterweight division in 2012.
Showtime interviewer Jim Gray did not like this as he believed Garcia deserved his moment and told Porter and his team to exit the ring.
[104] On November 27, it was reported that Top Rank had offered García a guaranteed $3m purse to challenge WBO champion Terence Crawford on March 23, 2019, on ESPN PPV, which included an upside of the pay-per-view revenue.
Garcia challenged Erislandy Lara for his WBA middleweight title at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on September 14, 2024.