Danny Garcia’s father fought back from a stroke. He’ll be in his corner for his title shot.

Angel Garcia raised his right hand, giving his son a target to punch last week as they moved around the ring at their boxing gym in Juniata Park.

The Garcias have trained in the neighborhood for more than 20 years, ever since the father returned home from prison and upheld a promise to take his boy to the gym. The sport has since given them so much — Danny Garcia is one of Philadelphia’s all-time greatest fighters and could become the city’s first boxer to win a world title in three weight classes on Sept. 14 — but the father’s time in the ring seemed to be in peril a few months ago.

Angel Garcia, 61, suffered a stroke in April while hitting the heavy bag at his son’s gym on Jasper Street. Something told him to not work out that day, but the trainer — who stays in shape by running through the drills he has long instructed his son to do — ignored his thoughts.

His body soon felt numb and he couldn’t make a fist. Garcia could raise his arm but could not shake someone’s hand. He went home and tried to hide it from his family before telling them the next day. He was rushed to the hospital, where doctors told him it was a miracle he was still alive. Garcia said three of his four arteries to his brain were clogged.

Angel Garcia left prison in 2000 after serving two years for drug possession with the intent to distribute and lost himself in the gym, where he built his son into an amateur champion. Garcia was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2006, spent two years on a feeding tube, and credits his son’s promising career for providing the will to reject a doctor’s diagnosis that gave him months to live.

So perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that Angel Garcia, a few months after he nearly died in the gym, was shuffling around the ring last week as his son fired off shots. The trainer was where he belonged.

“God gave me another chance to make Danny a world champion,” he said.

There was a phone in the basement of the Garcias’ home on Glendale Street that Danny Garcia would use to talk to his father while he was in prison.

The son wanted to train at the Harrowgate Boxing Club but needed his father to take him. Angel Garcia promised his son two things: He would take him to the gym and he’d never return to prison. They went to the gym to begin a career that could one day reach the Hall of Fame.

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“I knew I was the only one that could train him,” Angel Garcia said. “I was a dad and I saw a vision. When he did OK, I thought it was bad. It was always better, better, and better. When people said he did good, I said he did all right. I was never satisfied with his performance. I knew I could take him higher, higher, and higher. That’s how you become an elite fighter.”

Angel Garcia didn’t just train his son at the neighborhood gym on Venango Street, he drove Danny Garcia around the city to sharpen his skills.

“We’re at 26th and Huntingdon and it’s all Black fighters there,” said Hamza Muhammad, who boxed at the legendary Champs Gym before becoming a world-champion trainer. “Here comes a whole squad of Puerto Rican guys from Harrowgate. But it wasn’t just Puerto Ricans, Harrowgate had some white guys, too. The toughest white guys as they come.”

“The talent down at Champs was so crazy that Danny wasn’t coming down there and beating people up. He was getting beat up, but he came back a few months later, OK. A few months later, OK. Then the last time he came, it was, ‘Oh, crap. This kid leveled up.’”

Boxing is filled with father-and-son tandems that eventually run their course. Danny Garcia’s middleweight fight on Sept. 14 against Erislandy Lara (30-3-3, 18 knockouts) in Las Vegas on the undercard of Canelo Alvarez’s pay-per-view bout will be the 41st of his career, all of which have come with his father in his corner.

“You have to understand,” said the 36-year-old Danny Garcia (37-3, 21 KOs). “When you come from the bottom with someone, when you come from the struggle, we starved together. I was there when my dad came out of prison. We didn’t have anything. Why would I turn my back on him when I have something when he didn’t turn his back on me when I didn’t have anything? It’s loyalty. I’m all about morals and principles. That’s how I was raised.”

They won their first world title in 2012 at super lightweight, added a welterweight title in 2016, and now have a chance at the World Boxing Association middleweight title. After nearly 25 years in the ring, the Garcias are still together.

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“It’s been the same. The personalities are the same as they were back then,” Muhammad said. “A lot of times people see you as a pro or as a star. They think that person has always been the best. He hasn’t always been the best. He just stuck with it. I tell a lot of the kids if you put the work in, stay in the gym — of course you need talent — but I’ve seen much more guys excel who only had the will and consistency than guys who just had the talent.”

Garcia’s title fight against Lara will be his first bout in more than two years. The fight, Garcia said, was scheduled three times last year before being postponed because of TV broadcasting negotiations. For Garcia, the layoff was fine. He trained in the gym and enjoyed life outside it. For his father, it was torture.

“It’s harder for him because he loves boxing more than me,” Danny Garcia said. “I love it, but he loves it more than anything. He loves coming to the gym. He’s a real boxing fan. It was harder for him, definitely. I was good. I was living my life. But he doesn’t want me living my life. He wants my [butt] in the gym. He likes to see me working.”

While they waited for a fight, Angel Garcia poked his son with jabs.

“He would always throw little slick shots like, ‘You ain’t fighting anymore. I know you ain’t fighting anymore. I know you retired. It’s OK, champ. You don’t have to fight anymore,’” Danny Garcia said. “He was testing me. He wanted me to say, ‘No, I’m going to fight again.’”

“This has been a journey. From Pops going to prison to beating cancer. Me being a world champion, winning world titles, losing world titles, injuries, layoffs, setbacks, Pops having a stroke, family problems that no one knows about. It’s been a hell of a journey.”

Danny Garcia has added some help to this camp, hoping that other trainers could ease the burden on his father after the stroke. The guy who tried to hide a stroke from his family said he didn’t need any help. He has done this for years, Angel Garcia said. But he relented. He’ll handle the pads for a few rounds before handing off to his eldest son Erik or Wahid Rahim, who trains former world champion Stephen Fulton. Muhammad is also helping out. For the first time, Angel Garcia is sharing his son.

“I had to humble myself,” Angel Garcia said. “So I allowed it.”

Erik Garcia said their father is nearly back to how he was before the stroke. The trainer’s speech is a bit slower, but his mind is sharp. And his right hand remains a solid target.

“He’s one of the strongest guys I know,” Erik Garcia said. “I knew he would be fine. We’ve seen worse, you know what I mean? He was stuck. He couldn’t believe that it was happening to him, but once he got over that hump, it was go time.”

Garcia will enter the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas as an underdog against the 41-year-old Lara, who has won his last three fights by knockout. For Garcia, it’s a welcome role: The signature nights of his career came when he was given little chance.

“That was 11 years ago when they doubted Danny,” Angel Garcia said as he pointed to a poster promoting his son’s stunning 2013 win over Lucas Matthysse. “Everyone doubted us. They’re doubting us now the same way.”

Danny Garcia stunned the skeptics that night. His father believes he can do it again just like he believed that the boy on the phone in his basement could be a star. Angel Garcia willed himself again to be in his corner, training his son just like he promised he would all those years ago.

“For me, it will probably be the last time I get to see Danny become a world champion,” Angel Garcia said. “In my mind, I hope I get to live another 15 years. But life isn’t promised. You can’t say you’re going to live tomorrow because tomorrow isn’t promised.”