By Chris Williams: Last night, WBO super featherweight champion Mikey Garcia (34-0, 28 KO’s) fought for what will likely be the last time at 130 in beating Juan Carlos Burgos (34-2-2, 20 KO’s) by 12 round unanimous decision at MSG, in New York. With that victory, Mikey could be one fight away from a big money mega-fight against Manny Pacquiao in September of 2014.
Mikey will likely be back in the ring in the Summer in a fight at lightweight against possibly Yuiorkis Gamboa, if he doesn’t price himself out of the fight by asking for more than what Top Rank is willing to pay him to be the B side.
Last night when asked by HBO how he’d fight Pacquiao, Mikey said “I find my distance, find my range, timing. Timing beats speed and I have all those skills and when I fight someone like them, I’ll prepare for them.”
Mikey would definitely have a great many chances to land his counter punches against Pacquiao if they face each other in September. The only question is whether Mikey’s power will carry up to 147 lbs. for him to have a chance to score a knockout of the Filipino. Pacquiao will have the power in the negotiations, and he won’t likely agree to fight Mikey at 140. That means that Mikey will need to move up 3 entire divisions to take the fight with Pacquiao in September, and that’s a lot of weight to be moving up.
If Mikey’s power isn’t the same at 147 as it’s been at 126 and 130, then he’s going to have a lot of problems against Pacquiao. Mikey isn’t going to be able to out-box Pacquiao; that’s just not going to happen. Mikey’s a lot like Adrien Broner in that he doesn’t throw a lot of punches, and he doesn’t seem capable of upping his work-rate enough to win a decision against a much busier Pacquiao.
For Mikey to win against Pacquiao, it’s going to take a crushing one-punch knockout similar to the one that Juan Manuel Marquez delivered when he obliterated Pacquiao with a single right hand in their fight in December 2012. Mikey can probably punch as hard as Marquez, but I’m not sure if he can take as good a punch as him. Mikey getting staggered by Burgos last night wasn’t the first time he’s been hurt by a smaller fighter during his career.
Pacquiao hits a lot harder than Burgos with every punch, and he doesn’t need to load up to hurt an opponent. Can Mikey take Pacquiao’s shots long enough to knock him out? I’m not sure. But the shot that Burgos hit Mikey with in the 2nd round that hurt him would be magnified many times over if he were to fight Pacquiao. He’s capable of landing those shots 30-50 times per round against Mikey.
Unless Mikey can get to Pacquiao quickly to knock him out in the first two rounds, I suspect Mikey would end up getting knocked out before the 3rd round. I can’t see him going past that round, because he just doesn’t seem to be able to take a good shot without getting staggered, and that’s against smaller fighters. Just imagine what Pacquiao would do to Mikey if he lands.
Mikey and his team need to not look past Gamboa because he has a real chance of beating him and halting his forward progress to the Pacquiao fight.
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