By Dan Ambrose: #2 WBC Mikey Garcia (35-0, 29 KOs) has what could be the toughest fight of his career against WBC World lightweight champion Dejan Zlaticanin (22-0, 15 KOs) this Saturday night on January 28 on Showtime Boxing from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mikey, 29, has only faced a couple of difficult opponents in his career against Orlando Salido and Roman Martinez.
We don’t know how the Salido fight would have gone because Mikey bowed out of the fight in the 8th after suffering a nose injury. Salido was starting to get to Mikey, and it looked like it was starting to turn around for him.
This is only the second fight for Mikey Garcia since returning to the ring July. Garcia defeated Elio Rojas by a 5th round knockout. Before that, he Garcia had missed two and a half years of his career with him and his promoters at Top Rank dealing with promotional issues. Garcia is still young enough and strong enough to dominate in the lightweight class. He could move up in weight in the future to fight at 140. But for now, Mikey is interested in fighting the winner of the Jorge Linares vs. Anthony Crolla 2 fight.
The start time for the Garcia vs. Zlaticanin fight card is at 10:00 p.m. ET. Where to see the Garcia-Zlaticanin fight is this Saturday, January 28 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight will be televised on Showtime.
Mikey looked great in his first fight back from his long layoff in stopping former world champion Elio Rojas in five round in July 2016. Garcia was hit in that fight, but Rojas didn’t have the punching power to do anything. Rojas seemed to go down each time Garcia hit him with anything hard. Garcia knocked Rojas down four times in the fight in putting him on the canvas two times in round 3 and two more times in the 5th.
Garcia will be looking to capture his third division world title. In the past, Garcia has won titles at 126 and 130. Zlaticanin poses a problem for Garcia, because he punches hard and he tends to stay close to his opponents. The 5’7” Garcia will have a three inch height and reach advantage over the 5’4” Zlaticanin. What Garcia has done in the past when fighting shorter guys is he likes to hold his arm far out in front of him to push off. You’re not supposed to do this, but Garcia has gotten away with this tactic. It should be interesting on Saturday night if Garcia elects to go back to this strategy to keep the shorter Zlaticanin from getting inside on him.
“There are still a lot of things that I want to accomplish in this sport,” Garcia said via espn.com. “This would be my third division with a world title. I would obviously want to unify titles or go after titles at 140 pounds. I’m going to do whatever it takes to elevate myself in this sport.”
Mikey should win this fight against Zlaticanin based on his height and reach advantage. Zlaticanin is a big puncher though. If he can land one of his big left hooks, he could take Mikey out.
It would be a good idea for Garcia to stay at lightweight if he beats Zlaticanin on Saturday night. If Garcia moves up in weight to 140, he could have a lot of problems if he elects to fight WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford. I’m not sure if Garcia would even agree to that fight, because it would mean that his promoter would need to negotiate with Crawford’s promoter at Top Rank. If Garcia moves up to 140, it would look strange if he chose not to fight the guy considered to be the best in the division in Crawford.