Ariza thinks Mikey Garcia can find success like Pacquiao

By Boxing News - 11/05/2013 - Comments

garcia4543By Chris Williams: This Saturday night Mikey Garcia (32-0, 27 KO’s) will be challenging WBO super featherweight champion Roman Martinez (27-1-2, 16 KO’s) for his title on HBO from the American Bank Center, in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA. Garcia’s strength and conditioning coach Alex Ariza is excited about the transformation that Mikey’s body has gone through recently while following his strength and conditioning regimen.

Ariza said to fighthype “I’ve seen what happened to Manny, especially physically…with how he went to the next level…I’m seeing Mikey doing the same…he’s only going to get bigger, stronger…start moving down the divisions.”

It’ll be interesting to see if Mikey can find the same kind of success that Pacquiao found with Ariza, and whether he can keep moving up in weight and winning world titles. Mikey won a world title at featherweight in picking up the WBO belt last January in beating Orlando Salido. Mikey then was unable to make weight for the division in his first defense against of his WBO title against Juan Manuel Lopez last June. Mikey is now moving up in weight to super featherweight to challenge WBO champion Roman Martinez. But for Mikey to find the same success as Pacquiao, he will have to quickly move up to lightweight, light welterweight, welterweight and junior middleweight. I don’t think it’s possible for Mikey to do that unless he targets the weaker champions in each division and moves fast before he starts aging. It’s going to take time for him to get the title shots in each division, and it’ll be difficult due to the Golden Boy Promotions – Top Rank rivalry to get the fights against guys that might be able to beat.

Mikey is kind on the slender side, and I’m not sure if he’s got the kind of frame that will allow him to put on muscle weight quickly. There are some real tough fighters at lightweight, light welterweight and welterweight, and Mikey’s power might not carry up with him. His speed might slow down as well once he starts moving up in weight, and without his speed, he’s going to be vulnerable.

At 5’6″, Mikey would be even smaller than Tim Bradley, and that would mean that he’d be hit a lot more than he’s been getting hit at featherweight. Mikey is big for the featherweight division, but he’d one of the smaller fighters at 147, and he would be too small for junior middleweight. I think Ariza is getting too excited about Mikey’s future and he needs to realize that he does have limitations and we’d see those if he tried to move up in weight the way that Pacquiao did.



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