LOS ANGELES – Javier Fortuna confronted Ryan Garcia during their press conference Thursday and promised to take his head off.

Garcia doesn’t believe Fortuna will even attempt to be that aggressive against him Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena. The taller Garcia, who has knocked out 82 percent of his professional opponents, figures Fortuna will take a cautious approach in their 12-round, 140-pound bout because he’ll be wary of the heavy-handed Garcia’s power.

“He’s gonna run,” Garcia told a group of reporters after their press conference at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel. “He’s gonna run. He’s gonna run. I guarantee you he’s gonna try and box me. He’s not gonna come at me. I know he’s not because he can feel my presence right now. There’s just no way. If he tries to attack me, once I counter him once he’s on the move.”

The 33-year-old Fortuna, a southpaw from the Dominican Republic, has demonstrated some power of his own, but at lower weights. He has boxed almost exclusively in the 130-pound and 135-pound divisions during his 13-year pro career, but Fortuna pushed for a higher contracted weight against Garcia because the two-division champion had seven weeks to prepare for their fight, less time than he would’ve preferred.

If Fortuna (37-3-1, 26 KOs, 2 NC) surprises Garcia by pressing him, the 23-year-old lightweight contender is confident he’ll handle his experienced opponent easily in a main event DAZN will stream (8 p.m. ET; 5 p.m. PT).

“It don’t matter what he does, I’ll have an answer for it,” said Garcia, who will fight with veteran trainer Joe Goossen in his corner for the second time since Goossen replaced Eddy Reynoso. “I’m in a much better place skills-wise than I was with [Emmanuel] Tagoe. After a year-and-a-half layoff, the ring rust is gone. I paid attention. Thank God for the wisdom he gave me. Now I’m at a great place.”

Garcia (22-0, 18 KOs), of Victorville, California, ended a 15-month layoff April 9, when he beat Ghana’s Tagoe (32-2, 15 KOs) by unanimous decision in a 12-round junior welterweight match at Alamodome in San Antonio. Garcia knocked Tagoe to the canvas in the second round, but Tagoe withstood Garcia’s power for the remainder of a fight he lost by big margins on all three scorecards (119-108, 119-108, 118-109).

“I fought a great performance,” Garcia said. “Whether or not my skill level and my talent was the sharpest, I won every round, I knocked him down three times, I won. A guy who was ranked number six in the world, hadn’t lost in 15 years, people that think that sh!t was easy don’t know boxing. I beat him easy. I made it easy.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.