By Dan Ambrose: Unbeaten contender Mikey Garcia (30-0, 26 KO’s) says that his training team has come up with the perfect strategy for him to try and beat WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (39-11-2, 27 KO’s) this Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York. Garcia, 25, says he plans on using his height and reach to beat the 5’6” Salido.
Speaking with Figthtcoverage.com, Garcia said “We got a plan. I do have the height and reach advantage. I plan to use that to my advantage [and] work behind my jab.”
Garcia has a three inch reach advantage but his height is the same as Salido, he’s mistaken about having a height advantage in this fight.
The secret plan will almost surely involve Garcia staying on the outside, throwing his jab, moving a lot, and trying not to get caught in exchanges. While Garcia has a famous brother as a trainer in Robert Garcia, he’s not developed the inside fighting skills that the Mexican Salido has going for him. Mikey’s style is more of an outside game, and he doesn’t look comfortable when fighters get in close and crowd him.
In looking at Garcia spar you can see how he’s constantly moving and not staying in one play long enough to throw more than a couple of punches. That’s kind of a departure from his usual fighting style of standing straight up and slowly coming forward to stalk his over-matched weak opposition.
It looks like Robert Garcia is trying to change Mikey for this fight because he likely realizes that Salido will tear him apart if he gets in close and works him over with hooks to the body and head at close range. Mikey hits hard but he doesn’t have much if any power advantage over Salido, and he certainly can’t match Salido’s work rate. Mikey has been brought up a pot shot fighter and he’s not going to be capable of matching Salido’s nonstop punching attack, and he’d be crazy if he tried.
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