Mikey Garcia needs to skip 130 and go straight to 135

By Boxing News - 06/16/2013 - Comments

garcia54By Dan Ambrose: Former WBO featherweight champion Mikey Garcia (32-0, 27 KO’s) had a couple of excuses for why he couldn’t make weight for his fight against Juan Manuel Lopez. Garcia started out by saying he was sick for a number of days, and then he later mentioned that his diet wasn’t good for the fight.

Mikey said he would be moving up in weight to super featherweight on a trial basis, but I think he’s kidding himself. It’s time for Mikey to move up to lightweight [135]. If he’s struggling this bad to make 126, then it’s clearly time for him to make the move to skip super featherweight and go straight to lightweight.

Judging from how big Mikey looked last night in beating Juanma by a 4th round TKO, I think should seriously consider jumping past the super featherweight division altogether and going straight to lightweight [135], because there’s only a 4 pound difference from featherweight and super featherweight, and I don’t think that’s going to be enough for Mikey.

As big as Mikey was last night, I think needs at least 9 extra pounds he can play with so that he doesn’t have to drain himself to make weight. The last thing we need is Mikey coming in over overweight the 130 lb. limit for his next fight later this year at super featherweight, and then blaming it on him being sick or having the wrong diet.

If Mikey goes up to 135, I can’t see him having any problems whatsoever for the next or two before he outgrows that division as well. There’s little question that Mikey will end up in the welterweight division before he’s 30, and I can see him eventually fighting at 154 if he keeps growing and/or eating the wrong foods. He’s talking about his diet now. I can see that diet leading to him growing past the divisions that he was hoping to fight in and forcing him to be a welterweight/junior middleweight at some point.

For now, Mikey needs to not fool himself that he can still make featherweight. He obviously can’t. So he needs to move up to lightweight and try to stay at that weight for a couple of years.



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