Eye for an Eye: Mikey Garcia drops in on Mayweather training camp

By Raj Parmar - 04/23/2014 - Comments

garcia0By Raj Parmar: As Floyd Mayweather trained in front of media members on his scheduled open training day session yesterday, there was an interesting observer in the gym. Watching quietly and intently as Mayweather fiercely pounded his fists away in the ring was super featherweight champion Mikey Garcia, who took in all the action as he stood alongside the many photographers and cameraman that were absorbing in Mayweather’s every move.

Mikey is the younger brother of trainer Robert Garcia, who is currently training Marcos Maidana with hopes of being the first ones to give Mayweather a loss on May 3.

This comes a week after Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe unexpectedly dropped in on Maidana’s open training session. Robert Garcia at the time stated he was completely surprised to see Ellerbe there, while Ellerbe maintained that he heard a lot of good things about Garcia’s gym and wanted to get a closer look at the wonderful things he’d been hearing about the training facility.

Many fans were found it odd that Ellerbe would show up to Maidana’s training camp and assumed he may have been attempting to gain a closer assessment of Maidana’s chances against the undefeated Mayweather. Others suggested that Ellerbe went there to simply hype up the fight which has been rumored to potentially not bring in the massive amounts of revenue that a Mayweather fight is accustomed to bringing in due to the perceived one-sidedness of the match up.

Whatever the reason for Ellerbe’s surprising presence last week in Garcia’s gym, it appears team Maidana has decided to even out the playing field by sending in Mikey in to watch Mayweather train up close. When questioned about his presence, Mikey stated that he was invited to the session by Showtime and he had no plans of going on his own until he was invited, and felt that seeing the top pound for pound boxer in the world train in person would be a great experience for him.

It is well known by this point that Mikey is involved in a contractual dispute with promoter Top Rank. Mikey wants out of his Top Rank contract and by accepting an invitation by Showtime, who is aligned with Top Rank rival promotion Golden Boy, Mikey and Showtime may be engaging in courtship which will determine where Mikey lands if he gets free from Top Rank.

Or he could have simply been getting a closer assessment of Mayweather as the showdown with Maidana rapidly nears, just as Ellerbe may have been getting a closer valuation of Maidana.

Whatever the reason may be for Mikey (as well as Ellerbe’s) surprise visit to an opposing camp, it is unusual to see rival camp members openly visit the training camps of their opponents as is the case here. There is also very little doubt that whatever the reasons are for Mikey and Ellerbe to be present on the media day sessions, if they saw anything of value that could boost Maidana’s and Floyd’s chances of winning the fight then they would have passed it on to Robert and Floyd respectively.

Most of the media day training sessions are recorded and shown later on for all to see, however maybe being there in person can add a certain element to observation that specific recorded clips cannot show. Both teams have now had up close and personal looks of the opponent they are hoping will lose the fight. We will see in about a week and half if anything was picked up by these observations that can play a hand in the final outcome on May 3.



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