By Sean Jones: If Mikey Garcia (37-0, 30 KOs) gets his way, he’ll soon be replacing Floyd Mayweather Jr. as the biggest star in boxing. Garcia, 30, wants to take Mayweather’s place as the No.1 star in the sport now that he’s retired again. Garcia has a formidable task, however, as Mayweather was already a star by the time he was 30-years-old.
No one has ever questioned Garcia’s talent as a fighter. Garcia’s problems have been related to him fighting in the wrong weight classes to get the attention he deserves, and his inactivity in recent years. Had Garcia stayed active from 2014 to 2016, and if he’s moved up to the 140 lb. division, there’s a good chance he’d already be a major star. Of course, Garcia would have needed to fight and defeat the likes of Danny Garcia, Lamont Peterson, Amir Khan and Terence Crawford. It wouldn’t have been easy for Garcia to do this.
“I know that I have the possibility to be the biggest star in boxing like a Floyd Mayweather, and I think I’m on track to accomplish that,” said Garcia.
Garcia is moving up to 140 in his next fight to take on unbeaten IBF light welterweight champion Sergey Lipinets (13-0, 10 KOs) on February 10 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. Lipinets is a comparable fighter to past Mayweather opponents like Arturo Gatti and Jesus Chavez. If Garcia can chop Lipinets apart the way Mayweather dissected Gatti and Chavez, it would be a big accomplishment.
Garcia wants to make quick work of Lipinets on February 10, and then drop back down to lightweight to face WBA champion Jorge Linares in a unification fight. After that, if super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko moves up to lightweight, then Garcia wants to fight him. If that fight can’t happen, Garcia says he’ll add weight and move up to 147 to take on the big dogs in that division. That would be a Mayweather-like move on Garcia’s part.
Mayweather started his career out at super featherweight, and by the time he was Garcia’s age at 30, he had moved up to welterweight and was taking on guys like Oscar De La Hoya, Carlos Baldomir and Ricky Hatton. That’s when Mayweather started to get really big paydays. Garcia will need to move up to 147 for him to get the bigger money, because there aren’t enough Lomachenko level names in the lower weight classes for him become the superstar that he wants to.
“I don’t see a lot of guys in the sport with the resume of accomplishments that I have. I’m going to continue take on the best and beat my opponents convincingly,” said Garcia.
Garcia was out of action from 2014 to 2016 with his promotional dispute with Top Rank. Garcia has picked up 3 quick wins since resuming his career last year in beating Elio Rojas, Dejan Zlaticanin and Adrien Broner.
Garcia has the talent to replace Mayweather. The only thing he needs is to fight the right guys, and of course, he needs to keep winning.