For Garcia, KO of Morales is start of something big

• Danny Garcia retains his junior welterweight title belts
• Garcia helped christen the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn Saturday night
• Erik Morales said he will return to Tijuana, Mexico and possibly fight one last time there

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- With the most important victory of his young career in hand, a million bucks in his pocket from the biggest payday of his career, and an unusually balmy New York night beckoning, unified light welterweight champion Danny Garcia could celebrate any way he chose.

A Floyd Mayweather-style after-fight party at any nightclub in Brooklyn, or Manhattan, perhaps?

Maybe for someone more flamboyant.

This is Danny "Swift" Garcia, a family-oriented, mostly humble kid from Philadelphia who endured a tough upbringing, and is now the newest toast of the boxing world.

So there was Garcia, 24, at 2 a.m. Sunday sitting in the cramped hotel office of his promoter, Golden Boy, proudly sporting a Brooklyn cap, dressed in sweats and munching on cold pizza. Garcia's big celebration? Sitting around with his trainer and father Angel, some members of his team, and a few reporters, reliving fight night.

A couple hours earlier, with one powerful left hook, Garcia launched one career, and likely ended another.

And to think it almost didn't happen.

Following a harrowing week in which Garcia's opponent, Mexican great Erik Morales, 36, tested positive for the anabolic steroid clenbuterol, the decision to fight was left in Garcia's hands. The fight marked the return of championship boxing in Brooklyn after eight decades away.

The night before the fight at the new Barclays Center , Garcia and his dad both said no.

"I know (Morales) wanted to go out like a legend," Angel Garcia said. "I was going to pull out, because there's no money in my life that can make me more happy than Danny's life. I don't care about a million dollars."

Danny Garcia said he wants fair fights, and he didn't think this would be. "That's why we do the tests," he said.

By Saturday morning, the Garcias were of a different mind.

"When I woke up in the morning, my mom told my dad that I should fight him because she had a gut feeling that I'm going to win," Garcia said. "So I listened to my mom and went on with the fight."

He also credited mom Marissa Garcia for the left hook in the fourth round that nearly sent Morales through the ropes and quickly ended the junior welterweight title fight before a raucous crowd of more than 11,000.

"I want to thank my mom for my left hand," Garcia (25-0, 16 KOs) said after the fight. "My whole family's left-handed and that's what I got him with."

Morales, who swore all week that he never knowingly took steroids and blamed the positive test result on tainted beef in Mexico, said the brutal knockout was his last hurrah in the United States.

"Time passes by and this is an early sign that it's probably over," said Morales (52-9, 36 KOs). "This will be my last fight in the United States.

"I want to go home to Tijuana (fight once more) and retire."

Garcia's career, meanwhile, is ready for takeoff. With two belts in hand and victories over popular but beatable opponents such as Morales (twice) and Amir Khan, whom he knocked out in July, Garcia now is in position to pick and choose his opponents.

At the post-fight news conference, with 47-year-old Philadelphia icon Bernard Hopkins standing a few feet away, Garcia was asked if he'd like to fight on a card with Hopkins in Philly.

"That's up to Bernard," Garcia said with a big grin. "Bernard's the king, you gotta ask the king and the head of Golden Boy (Richard Schaefer), but it would be an honor to fight under a legend's card."

Another possibility is Zab Judah, the southpaw from Booklyn who at 22 became a champion at an even younger age than Garcia. Judah (42-7-2, 29 KOs) now nearly 35, is an intriguing choice, given that Golden Boy has exclusive rights to Barclays Center for a year. "I'm sure we would have a full house in Brooklyn for that one," Schaefer said.

"This was history, the first fight in Brooklyn in 80 years, and it won't be the last," Garcia said. "I'm only 24years old and I'm not even in my prime yet. You haven't seen the best yet of Danny Garcia."

As for Judah, Garcia said: "I'll fight anybody. I don't pick my fights. My job is to train hard and whoever they put in front of me, destroy him."

Count Erik Morales among the believers.