Arum talks matching Mikey Garcia against Pacquiao and Lomachenko

By Boxing News - 01/15/2014 - Comments

mikey8By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is talking about having Mikey Garcia (33-0 28 KO’s) face either Manny Pacquiao or super featherweight contender Vasyl Lomachenko in the near future. Arum’s not saying when he wants to match Garcia up with Pacquiao, but one gets the sense that he could surprise us by either making the fight by the end of the year or in early 2015.

It’s probably a good idea for Arum to match Mikey up with Pacquiao sooner rather than later, because it’s possible that the Filipino star might not re-sign with Arum when his contract expires at the end of the year.

Arum could find himself in the position where he missed his window of opportunity to match Mikey up with Pacquiao if he doesn’t make the fight happen before his contract expires. Perhaps that’s why Arum is suddenly walking more and more about putting Mikey in with Pacquiao.

Arum’s got to know that there’s a good chance that Pacquiao will choose not to re-sign in order for him to try and get a fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr., and all the fighters he’s been unable to fight from the Golden Boy Promotions stable all these years due to the Top Rank – Golden Boy squabbles.

Here’s what Arum has to say about Mikey fighting Pacquiao and Lomachenko:

“Does it take him up in weight to 135 or 140 then a fight with Pacquiao or does it take him to a tremendous confrontation with Lomachenko if Lomachenko proves himself with Orlando Salido [March 1] and goes forward. Will he [Lomachenko] be as successful in the pros and if he is will Mikey Garcia be his biggest fight? A lot can happen so we go one fight at a time. – whether he goes up, stays at 130 – that’s going to depend on what’s happening in boxing. He [Mikey] mentioned to some that down the road he would look forward to a fight with Manny Pacquiao. I am a big Mikey Garcia fans and I thought that would be good.”

It sounds like Lomachenko will be Arum’s backup plan for Mikey if he chooses not to put him in with Pacquaio. That’ll depend on Lomachenko beating Orlando Salido on March 1st, and it’ll also depend on how well Mikey does against Juan Carlos Burgos this month in their fight on January 25th. Neither of those fighters are slam dunks for Lomachenko and Mikey. They could lose, and that would wreck Arum’s plans in a huge way.

As far as Mikey fighting Pacquiao, it doesn’t matter if he gets destroyed by Pacquiao. It’s probably a win-win for Arum because Mikey will bring in a lot of fans to purchase the fight on pay-per-view, so the end result for Mikey matters little. What matters is that a lot of boxing fans will purchase the fight thinking it’ll be a competitive fight. It probably won’t. Mikey will be in over his head unless he moves up to welterweight slowly and fights plenty of guys at the weight before he gets in the ring with Pacquiao. By then, Pacquiao will have aged more and might be old and shot enough for Mikey to beat him.



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