This has been a long time coming.
After a rib injury to Danny Garcia caused his fight with Zab Judah to be delayed two months, the two will finally get to duke it out in the ring with the Unified Super Lightweight World Championship on the line at Barclays Center on Saturday night.
It is a good thing too because these two fighters have been at each others’ throats for months.
The intensity of the title bout, illustrated by the fact that the two nearly came to blows at a Brooklyn sporting goods store earlier in the week and needed to have separate pre-fight press conference, will not be lost on Brooklyn’s rabid boxing fanbase.
“First and foremost the most important thing is Saturday night,” Judah said. “It’s not just about winning. This is New York. This is Brooklyn. New York fans are very tough. They don’t want you to just win by one point. They want to see you really win.”
Judah, who will fight in front of his hometown crowd, is the more experienced fighter, with his fight against Garcia marking the 50th of his career (42-7, 29 KOs), but Garcia is the champion and is coming in undefeated (25-0, 16 KOs).
“I feel tremendous, I’m injury free, I’m solid, I’m confident and I’m really motivated for this fight,” Garcia said. “I think I’m the most motivated I’ve ever been for a fight. I grew to be a heck of a dangerous fighter, more dangerous than I was before. I’m just smarter now. Saturday night, I’m going to be smart. I’m going to just destroy.”
The bad blood between the two dates back to when the fight was originally announced in December. At the announcement Judah and Garcia’s father and trainer, Angel Garcia, nearly came to blows.
Now Judah wants to make the son pay for his father’s sins.
“I can’t get in the ring and fight Angel Garcia,” Judah said. “What do I do? I fight. I knock people out. I can’t do that with Angel. I am going to knock Danny Garcia out and watch Angel come in there and pick him up.”
Judah is not entirely innocent however. When Garcia’s rib injury forced the fight to be pushed back from February 9 to Saturday night, Judah accused him of faking the injury because he was not in good enough shape to fight.
“We don’t want to hear any excuses,” Judah said. “We gave him his two months to let his rib heal up. His rib, neck, thumb, back, elbow, toe, whatever he hurt. It’s all fixed up now in hopes that Saturday night we just get moving and put on a good fight.”
The rib injury should not be a factor for Garcia, however.
“Danny had a great camp,” Angel Garcia said. “February 9th, he got a caught with a little injury, but that’s in the past. That’s not the future. The future is that he’s ready. He’s ready to go 100 percent, mentally and physically.”
This will be Judah’s first fight in over a year, with the 35-year-old Brooklyn native having defeated Vernon Paris by ninth round TKO last March. The 25-year-old Garcia is coming off of back-to-back title defenses against Amir Khan and Erik Morales, with both wins coming in the fourth round.
“I’m still campaigning at this height and level of boxing,” Judah said. “Watch Saturday night and you’re going to see the best. You’re going to think I’m 25 again.”
asulla-heffinger@nypost.com