Joe DeGuardia was back to work on Wednesday, chatting up his firm’s top fighter, Chris Algieri. And that was no small accomplishment.

A day earlier, his father, Joseph Sr., died unexpectedly at his Bronx home at the age of 86. His son was in his office a block away and raced to his father’s side only to find paramedics administering CPR.

“Truthfully, I thought they were going to revive him because my dad was always a fighter,” DeGuardia said. “He could pull through anything, no matter what it was.”

The next day, DeGuardia had a decision to make: Should he attend a press conference to help promote Algieri’s April 16 bout with Errol Spence Jr. at Barclays Center so soon after his father’s death? For DeGuardia, it was an easy decision.

He arrived at Gallaghers Steakhouse in midtown Manhattan wearing a subdued expression and a broken heart. But he was there nonetheless because it’s what his father, who also went by the last name of DioGuardi, would have wanted, he said.

“It’s something that’s indicative of him is the fact that when I had to make a decision about, ‘Do I come today?'” DeGuardia said, “it really wasn’t that hard of a decision because my father’s position always is, ‘You have to go forward and do the things you’re going to do. You have obligations.'”

And one of those obligations was to Algieri, whose career is at a crossroads with his upcoming bout with Spence. Algieri spoke fondly of DeGuardia Sr. when he went up to the podium on Wednesday, even asking for a moment of silence when he was finished.

DeGuardia’s father always had a special fondness for Algieri, the two sharing a bond that extended beyond the ring. They were even supposed to meet for dinner after Algieri’s bout, DeGuardia said.

“Whenever I had a chance to chat with the man and talk old-school boxing with him, I always enjoyed that,” Algieri said at the dais. “It was a shock to hear the regrettable news. He was a great man and a tough fighter.”

DeGuardia Sr. was a former pro fighter who was trained by Angelo Dundee and founded the Morris Park Boxing Club and BATOY (Better America Through Our Youth), according to an obituary on the Joseph Lucchese Funeral Home website.

DeGuardia said he was discussing whether he should attend the news conference with his dad’s wife, Dorothy, when Algieri’s name emerged again. “And she said, ‘Are you kidding me?'” he recalled. “You’re father would say, ‘Don’t even think about it. Get down there. Go take care of things. You have an obligation. And I like that kid and you have an obligation to that kid and you’re supposed to be down there to support him.’ And it’s true. It’s the kind of values that he’s tried to instill in not only his kids but also his disciples.”

DeGuardia Sr. attended his son’s boxing card on Saturday at The Paramount in Huntington, Long Island where Cletus Seldin registered a first-round knockout to stay undefeated. He also went to his grandson’s basketball game on Sunday, seemingly in good health, DeGuardia said. “So, I don’t know,” he said. “It was a shocker.”

DeGuardia remembers his father as someone who trained neighborhood kids at his gym, loved his family and was quick to help someone in need. “There are tons of kids from the neighborhood that are coming back Friday for the services to see him, old time fighters because he was like a father to them,” DeGuardia said. “He had a certain way about him. He was nice. He was jovial to everybody. He helped the underdog and the downtrodden person. And the flipside was everybody knew not to cross him because he didn’t take any s–t from anybody. It’s really the types of things you try to instill in people — be confident, work hard, don’t be a bully, but don’t take anybody’s nonsense either, and that was really the embodiment of him.”

Visitation will take place Friday from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. at the Joseph A. Lucchese Funeral Home at 726 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, New York. The funeral procession is on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. from the funeral home. The Mass of Christian Burial is on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at Our Lady of Solace Church at 731 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, New York.