By Dan Ambrose: Former world champions Mikey Garcia and Danny Garcia have reportedly agreed to terms for a fight in the fall, according to Mike Coppinger. This will likely be on pay-per-view. The fight could be staged at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California in October. Despite the lack of success for Danny and Mikey recently, the fight is almost surely going to wind up on PPV.
This is one of those fights that are fun to watch, but it doesn’t have any real meaning in terms of the major players at 147. Mikey and Danny are not elite level welterweights. Danny has already been exposed by Thurman and Porter at welterweight. He’s too small for the division. Mikey should be at 135, but there’s no money in that division right now.
It’s going to be a hard sell to get the boxing world to want to purchase the Mikey vs. Danny fight, because neither of them is anywhere close to being the best at 147. Mikey just lost a lopsided 12 round unanimous decision to IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. last March on Fox Sports PPV in Arlington, Texas. Danny Garcia was easily beaten by Thurman and Shawn Porter.
Mikey Garcia vs. Danny Garcia: Will fans pay to see this on PPV?
After his recent loss to Spence, the criticism that Mikey (39-1, 30 KOs) took from fans was based on the way that he appeared to fight to survive for 12 rounds instead of trying to win. It looked like Mikey wasn’t willing to put in the effort he needed to for him to have a chane to win.
Danny Garcia (35-2, 21 KOs) is a good fighter, but he’s not on the same level as Spence or even WBC champion Shawn Porter. A fight between Danny and Mikey would make sense if the two of them redeemed themselves after their recent losses. Danny has lost two out of his last four fights since 2017 in losses to Keith Thurman and Porter. Danny’s wins in the last two years have come against Brandon Rios and Adrian Granados. In other words, low level opposition.
Coppinger said this on his Twitter about the Danny Garcia vs. Mikey Garcia news:
“BREAKING: Sources tell @TheAthletic that Mikey Garcia and Danny Garcia have agreed to terms for a fall showdown. I analyze what the fight means for each boxer in what will surely be billed as another chapter in the storied Mexico-Puerto Rico rivalry.”
Is Mikey Garcia cashing out?
The general consensus among boxing fans is the 5’6″ Mikey is too small to be fighting at welterweight. He belongs at lightweight at 135 rather than at 147, but the money obviously is too good for him to resist staying at welterweight to continue to get nice paydays in losing efforts. At some point the fans will grow weary of paying to see Mikey fight on pay-per-view if he’s incapable of beating anyone good.
Danny Garcia too big and too strong for Mikey
You can expect Danny Garcia to use his size and power to crush Mikey in this fight. Spence seemed to take it easy on Mikey after he hurt him in the ninth round. Spence backed off and let Mikey survive the remainder of the fight. It’s unclear whether Spence was hoping in the back of his mind that a rematch between the two could happen if he let Mikey survive. Either way, it looked like Spence allowed Mikey to survive. Danny is a different type of fighter. If he buzzes Mikey with one of his hard left hooks, he’ll try to finish him off. That’s the great quality about Danny. He doesn’t let his opponents hang around
Mikey Garcia would be better off waiting for Manny Pacquiao fight
This isn’t the ideal fight for Mikey to take right now. Pacquiao is fighting next month against Keith Thurman. A win for Pacquiao would set up a huge match-up between Mikey and him for the fall. There’s more money for Mikey fighting Pacquiao than there is against the struggling Danny Garcia, whose record is 2-2 in his last four fights.