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"My brother never wanted to box when he was a kid," said Robert, who now co-trains fighters with his father at the La Colonia Gym in Oxnard. "When he was 10, 11 years old, he hated boxing. Well, not hated it, but he never wanted to go to the gym. There were times when my dad would take him to the gym when we had nobody else to take care of him or something and he'd have to go, and he would cry. He never wanted to go into the gym.
 
"I remember one day, he was about nine or ten, there was this amateur kid that was already a member and playing around and we told our brother, 'Hey, you're going to spar this kid.' My brother started crying; he was scared, he didn't want to fight at all."
 
According to Eduardo, there was no crying in boxing.
 
"My dad, being the macho man, 'Hey, I want my kid to be tough,' got mad because he started crying. He gave him a few spanks. I remember I took my brother, I hugged him, took him out, and took him home."
 
Fast forward to 2008 and the younger sibling of Garcia is now a rising featherweight who has a mark of 13-0 with 11 KO's. It seems downright inconceivable that a member of this family was once disinterested in boxing. It's like a Kennedy not getting into politics.
 
“There was no particular reason," says Miguel of his apathy towards boxing. "Being around my brother and boxing since he was a little kid, I was just being a kid myself. I didn't want to be in the ring at an early age like he was. I just wanted to grow up with my friends and hang out and do normal kid stuff. I saw that boxing took a lot of time, and a lot of afterschool time wasn't dedicated to kids, it was for the sport. And I didn't want to deal with that. So I just took some time off till I really got started into boxing."
 
According to his older brother, Miguel caught the boxing bug when he was around 14 years old, as they went to an amateur show at the Canoga Park Boxing Gym, where his nephew Javier was performing.

"There was this kid who was the gym's favorite fighter - but there's nobody to fight him," recalled Garcia. "He's going to end up with no fight, so my brother said, 'Y'know what? I'll fight him.' We're like, 'Are you sure? You've never even boxed before.'"
 
His brother’s response? "I'll fight him."
 
He would lose the exhibition match, but it was there that the light bulb went on for him.

“I got hooked on that," says Garcia, who had less than 50 amateur fights. And the silver lining to his relatively late start is that unlike many other boxers, he still has a fresh outlook on the game. 'Burnout' is not a word in his vocabulary.
 
"Maybe other kids that started off at eight years old, ten years old, by the time they turn 17, 18 years old they're ready to go, they've already gotten tired of that and maybe a little worn out from so many amateur fights and tournaments," he reasons. "I started later; my first amateur fight was at 14. Right now, that's working great."
 
While Miguel could be the next Garcia to make his mark on the boxing world, the story really begins with the patriarch of the family, Eduardo, who as a teenager in Guadalajara, Mexico had developed a love for the sport. At the age of 17 he would migrate across the border, first settling down in San Pedro before heading to Oxnard to find steady work. As he worked and raised his family, his interest in boxing never waned. He was a constant presence at Southland gyms where he would watch the likes of Pipino Cuevas and Roberto Duran prepare for their fights.
 
The two constants in his life were boxing and strawberries.
 
“My dad had some cousins that were here before him (in Oxnard) and they're the ones that told him the jobs picking strawberries are really good, that it makes a lot of money. So he came over and brought us all and he was working on the fields," says Robert. "He got there at six in the morning, got to the gym at four or five, still with his boots and clothes full of strawberries and he would train us there till about eight. Then he'd go home, shower up, and the next morning, same thing.
 
"He did that for many years until I became champion and Fernando started doing so good that he was able to quit his job."
 
In addition to strawberries, this working class city also produces world-class prizefighters. Alongside Garcia, WBO featherweight titlist Steven Luevano, former jr. flyweight titlist Brian Viloria, and jr. lightweight hopeful Brandon Rios put in their daily work at the La Colonia Gym, which was made famous by 'the Ferocious One'.
 
Garcia has a chance to be its next great homegrown talent.
 
"He can not only be a world champion - and I don't want to curse him - he can be a pound-for-pound guy, he's that good," said his manager Cameron Dunkin, whose roster of talent includes Luevano, Kelly Pavlik, James Kirkland and Nonito Donaire. "I saw him the other night and we were just looking to see him win and have to fight hard against a very, very tough guy who had upset four people in a row and was a very, very tough guy in Jose Hernandez. We thought that if he wins the fight, an 8-rounder, he'd win 6-2, 5-3 and he has to work. That's the kind of fight I thought it was going to be."
 
The Hernandez fight would come on August 2nd at The Palms in Las Vegas, underneath that night’s main event between Joshua Clottey and Zab Judah. Against a fighter who had never been stopped in 17 previous bouts (Hernandez came in with a ledger of 11-5-1) and was undefeated in his four bouts coming in - including a 12th round stoppage of the 15-0-1 Rasheim Jefferson for the vacant USBA featherweight belt - Garcia would floor Hernandez in the second and stop him in the 8th and final round.
 
It was an impressive, yet workmanlike performance that saw Garcia patiently break down the southpaw with a steady two-fisted attack to the body and head, showing a veteran’s poise throughout.
 
Top Rank matchmaker Brad Goodman says of Garcia's development, "It's been a slow progress; the last couple fights he's been getting better and better. His last fight against Hernandez, that was the icing on the cake. I thought he fought a masterpiece, and right now he's Top Rank's best prospect."
 
Time is on Garcia's side.
 
"He's only 20 years old," Dunkin points out. "We're in no rush. So what we think is to just keep him busy. I'd like for him to fight on that November 1st show in Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium and I'd like to fight him before that and we're looking for a spot right now. Then maybe one more before the end of the year. Then next year just keep him busy every other month and move him into 10-rounders. I think by the end of the next year, he'll be in title contention."
 
His older brother likes what he's seeing.
 
"I think each fight he's looking better and better. He's picking it up very good with the training at the gym," he says. And best of all, no longer does he have to be dragged kicking and screaming there. "He's in the gym training hard, doing everything myself and my dad have to tell him."
 
(Garcia's bout versus Hernandez can be viewed on Max-TV).