Espinoza wants Adrien Broner vs. Mikey Garcia

By Boxing News - 10/26/2016 - Comments

Mikey Garcia

By Dan Ambrose: Showtime boss Stephen Espinoza is hoping that a fight between former four division world champion Adrien Broner and lightweight contender Mikey Garcia (35-0, 29 KOs) can take place in the future once Mikey moves up to the 140lb division. Espinoza thinks it would be a great fight if Broner and Mikey were to face each other.

There’s likely a lot that could happen before they meet up. Broner fights next on February 11 against light welterweight contender Adrian Granados (18-4-2, 12 KOs) on Showtime Boxing. There’s no telling if Broner will win that fight, because he’s too hard predict what you’re going to get out him.

Further, Broner’s problems outside of the ring make it difficult to predict where he’ll be in a year from now.

Mikey, 28, will be challenging World Boxing Council lightweight champion Dejan Zlaticanin (22-0, 15 KOs) on January 28 on the undercard of the Leo Santa Cruz vs. Carl Frampton card from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“If (Garcia is) at 140, you can sort of mix and match some of the names on this slate and I’d like to say somewhere in the future — a Adrien Broner-Mikey Garcia fight, maybe at 140,” Espinoza said to RingTV.com on. “It’s just my idea. You can’t get ahead of yourselves. Mikey has to see how he feels at 135.”

The way Mikey Garcia is looking right now, I think he beats Broner and beats him easily. I also don’t see Broner or his manager Al Haymon wanting anything to do with Mikey Garcia. That’s too dangerous of fight.

If Broner beats Granados, and that’s a BIG IF, he could be facing WBA World light welterweight champion Ricky Burns for his title next year. That’s a good match-up for Broner, as Burns is pretty vulnerable except when he’s fighting in Glasgow, Scotland. He’s pretty much unbeatable when he’s fighting over there. If Broner can beat Burns to pick up his WBA title, then it might get interesting if Mikey moves up in weight to try and challenge him.

Mikey needs to make the move soon though, because there’s nothing at lightweight for him other than Jorge Linares. If Mikey can move up to 140, he could face the likes of Broner, Viktor Postol and Terence Crawford.

It would be anyone’s guess if Mikey’s old promoters at Top Rank would be willing to match the Top Rank promoted Crawford or Postol against Mikey. I kind of doubt it. They might take the fight if they think Crawford or Postol will win, but definitely not if they think they’ll lose.

Broner might have problems making weight for his fight against Granados and for his other fights at 140. I’d be surprised if he can even get down to the 140lb weigh limit at this point. Broner lost his WBA 140lb title last April after he failed to make weight for his fight against 35-year-old Ashley Theophane. Broner won the fight by a 9th round knockout, but he lost his WBA title on the scales after he failed to make weight.

“I can see him campaigning at either 135 or ’40 in a couple years — depending on where he feels more comfortable. If he feels comfortable at 135, I think he’s there for a long time,” said Espinoza.