Mikey Garcia to fight in Aug. or Sep., mentions Prograis

By Boxing News - 05/01/2019 - Comments

Image: Mikey Garcia to fight in Aug. or Sep., mentions Prograis

By Dan Ambrose: A month after his one-sided loss to IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. last March, Mikey Garcia (39-1, 30 KOs) finally emerged to give details about his next fight. Mikey says he’ll be back inside the ring likely in last summer in August, September or possibly October. He wants to fight at 140 or 147. He’s ruled out going back down to 135 for now.

Some fans were wondering where Mikey was hiding after his loss to Spence. Mikey disappeared off the face of the map after that loss. It’s good that Mikey has finally surfaced.

Despite Garcia’s poor showing against Spence, he still wants to fight at welterweight. Spence is considered one of the best fighters in the 147 lb. weight class. There’s a chance that Garcia will do better against one of the other elite welterweights. For Mikey to make big money, he’ll need to concentrate exclusively on facing either Manny Pacquiao or Keith Thurman. Those are the big names. Danny Garcia has lost too many fights recently for him to be a good option. WBC champion Shawn Porter is expected to face Spence in a unification match in September. That fight likely won’t go well for Porter.

“I can’t give an answer yet [when he’ll return], but I’m looking at August or September for late summer or early fall,” Mikey Garcia said to Fighthype about when he’ll be returning to the ring. “Late September, maybe push it to October. At 140 or 147. I can’t do anything lower than 140. I don’t think I can do that right now. 140 is an option right now, and 147, depending on who’s available,” Mikey said.

Mikey’s needs to choose carefully his next opponent. He barely beat Sergey Lipinets at 140 in 2018. Mikey took a lot of punishment from Lipinets, and looked like the loser of the fight afterwards. For Mikey to get credit from boxing fans, he’ll need to fight good opposition at light welterweight. He can’t continue to fight over-the-hill fighters like Adrien Broner at 140. Mikey needs to fight these type of guys for him to keep his career alive: Ivan Baranchyk, Maurice Hooker, Vergil Ortiz, Regis Prograis, Jose Carlos Ramirez, Josh Taylor or Pablo Cesar Cano. It’s unlikely Mikey will tangle with any of them.

It’s more likely than not that one of these fighters will be picked out for Mikey’s next fight: Kiryl Relikh, Anthony Yigit, Eduard Troyanovsky, Jose Zepeda, Yves Ulysse Jr., Antonio DeMarco, Ryan Martin, Mauricio Herrera or Chris Algieri. Of those fighters, Relikh, Martin or Algieri is likely where Mikey’s next opponent is picked from. All three looked poor recently. If Mikey can’t beat those guys, then he absolutely needs to go back down to 135. With Mikey hunting for a big money fight at 147, he’s clearly not going to fight a good light welterweight and risk losing out on another payday. At this point in his career, Mikey seems to be focusing more on the business side rather than on the sporting side. Mikey has tasted good money in his fights with Broner and Spence, so it might be hard for him to take a pay cut by going after non-popular champions at 140 like Hooker, Baranchyk or Ramirez.

Mikey was asked if he would be willing to fight undefeated WBC Diamond light welterweight champion Regis Prograis (24-0, 20 KOs), but he quickly pointed out that the New Orleans native is still competing in the World Boxing Boxing Super Series 140 lb tournament. However, Mikey does says that Prograis could be an option for him in the future.

“He’s got that tournament still,” Mikey said when asked about his thoughts of fighting a 140 pound fighter like Regis Prograis next. “He could possibly be one of the guys that win it. Maybe we could do something with him,” Mikey said.

It’s EXTREMELY doubtful that Mikey will ever fight a talent like Prograis (24-0, 20 KOs). That guy is all wrong for Mikey. Unlike Spence, Prograis would go for the knockout of Mikey, and not let him hang around for 12 rounds while trying to to impress boxing fans will his skills. Prograis would be looking knockout the entire time in a fight with Mikey.

We’ll have to see what Mikey has left in the tank after the beating he took against Spence. Mikey took a lot of heavy shots for 12 rounds by the powerful Spence. It might have been better if Mikey’s trainer Robert Garcia pulled him out of the one-sided fight to save him for another day rather than letting him eat shots for 12 rounds.

Some people think Mikey is afraid to fight at lightweight because he would be pressured to fight talented fighters Vasiliy Lomachenko, Teofimo Lopez or Luke Campbell. Those guys might beat him and send his career downhill. Mikey didn’t lose too much popularity with his defeat to Spence, because he moved up two weight classes to take the fight. But if Mikey were to return to 135 and get soundly beaten by Lomachenko, Teofimo or Campbell, then those would be tough defeats for him to swallow. Mikey couldn’t explain away losses to those guys as easily as he did in his defeat at the hands of the bigger Spence.

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