By Dan Anbrose: Mikey Garcia (39-1, 30 KOs) will have a big handicap going for him when he faces Jessie Vargas (29-2-2, 11 KOs) at 147 without a CATCHWEIGHT on February 29 on DAZN at the The Ford Center at The Star, in Frisco, Texas. The venue has a seating capacity of 12,000 fans, and there’s an excellent chance the fight will sell out. Vargas isn’t a big name, but that doesn’t matter. Mikey will pull in the fans single-handedly without help from Vargas.

NO catchweight for Vargas against Mikey

Whatever chance that Vargas, 30, had in winning this fight went down the tubes with him agreeing to fight Mikey at 147 lbs without a catchweight. If you’ve seen how big the 5’11” Vargas is, he’s way too big to be fighting at welterweight at this point in his career. Vargas looks like a middleweight now, and he should be fighting at least at 154 at the minimum.

It’s unclear why Vargas hasn’t taken the plunge to start fighting guys in that weight class. He talks a lot about him now campaigning at 154, but then he faces an old former lightweight in 39-year-old Humberto Soto.

Vargas has had a failure to launch when it comes to him moving up in weight, and it’s similar to Kell Brook. He’s another former welterweight champion that has talked about how he’s moved up to 154, but then he doesn’t fight.

Mikey will reportedly be getting $7 million for the Vargas fight on Feb.29.

That’s a lot of money for a fight that isn’t in demand by fans. Unfortunately for Mikey, Vargas isn’t a big name at 147 or 154. He’s just a former belt holder at 140 and 147. It’s admirable that Vargas has captured world titles in two divisions, but it’s fair to same that the main reason he didn’t gain a huge fan base from that is the guys he fought to win those belts.

Vargas picked up his WBA 140-lb title beating Khabib Allakhverdiev, and he won his WBO 147-pound belt beating Sadam Ali.

Mikey targeting Pacquiao in 2020

Former four division world champion Mikey needs a win over Vargas to stay in the hunt for a title shot against WBA Super World welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao in the second half of 2020

It was predictable that Mikey, 32, would insist on the Vargas fight taking place at 147 rather than at a catchweight at junior middleweight. In Mikey’s fight against IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence last March, he lost every second of that fight due to his lack of size for the weight class.

The contest showed that Mikey is TOO small to be fighting at 147. The logical question boxing fans have is why is Garcia staying at 147? The answer is simple. Paydays are bigger, MUCH bigger at welterweight than they are at 135 and 140. Mikey’s best weight class is lightweight [135], but he can’t make the same kind of money fighting in that division as he can at 147.

Vargas will need to drain down from 154 to fight Mikey without the benefit of a catchweight, and that’s going to be tough on him. Jessie is a good fighter, but he’s outgrown the 147 pound division. The last time Vargas fought at 147, he was held to a 12 round draw against Thomas Dulorme 14 months ago in October 2018.

Jessie Vargas: We’re giving fans what they want to see

“It’s a big fight for fight fans, it’s one people have wanted for a long time now,” said Vargas. “We are giving them what they want to see, it’s going to be a great showdown.

Vargas is exaggerating in saying that he and Mikey are giving boxing fans the fight they want to see. This isn’t a knock on Vargas, but the fans are NOT interested in seeing Mikey fight him. Vargas’ career has pretty much tanked, and he’s arguably yesterday’s news now. He couldn’t beat Thomas Dulorme or even Adrien Broner, and he was getting worked over by lightweight Humberto Soto in his last fight.

The fans want to see Mikey fight these guys:

Devin Haney
Vasiliy Lomachenko
Gervonta Davis
Teofimo Lopez
Ryan Garcia

I don’t think Mikey beats any of those guys at this point in his career, and he definitely can’t beat the welterweight champions. That much was shown in his loss to Spence.

Garcia makes his debut on DAZN

Mikey’s fight with Vargas will be his debut for DAZN. He signed a one-fight contract with Eddie Hearn and his Matchroom Boxing USA recently, and he’s looking to put Mikey in position to face Pacquiao in 2020.

It’ll be interesting to see if Hearn bothers to pick up the one-fight option that Mikey has with Matchroom if he loses to Vargas. My guess is Hearn will move on, and let Mikey drift away to try and pick up the pieces of his shattered career with another promoter.

A loss to Vargas would be Mikey’s second consecutive defeat at 147, and it would be a sure sign that he has no business fighting in that weight class. Mikey has been eating well and looking chubby since he moved up from lightweight to welterweight, and it’s now unclear whether he can ever go back down to 135 to compete.

Mikey is starting to resemble his brother Robert Garcia with his wide face, and he looks soft like he’s carrying too much fat. Bulking up for his last fight against Spence didn’t help Mikey one bit. He wasn’t throwing punches, and he looked afraid. In Mikey’s fight against Spence, he looked like he was carrying an extra 15 pounds of fat, and he was useless against him.

Vargas expects his fight with Mikey to get a lot of attention

“It’s one of the fights that will generate a lot of attention and it’s the perfect time to shine and show that I am here to stay,” said Vargas. “I need to show that I am going to be a World champion again and this is the perfect fight to show that.”

As far as the Mikey-Vargas fight gaining attention because Vargas is involved, that’s not the reality. This is all Mikey. He could fight almost anybody, and the fans would want to see him. Obviously, it would be better if Mikey chose one of the talented welterweights to fight instead of Vargas, who isn’t a major player at 147 or 154. Mikey would get more attention fighting one of these welterweights:

Keith Thurman
Shawn Porter
Yordenis Ugas
Danny Garcia
Vergil Ortiz Jr.

The chances of Mikey beating ANY of those welterweights are less than zero unfortunately, and that tells you how limited Vargas is. Mikey can possibly beat Vargas, because he was never that good to begin with. But the above welterweights have talent, and Mikey would likely be too small to beat any of them.

Mikey vs. Vargas will gain some attention from boxing fans, but only because there’s a size mismatch. You can expect Hearn to make sure that he mentions Pacquiao’s name frequently in the build up to the Mikey vs. Vargas fight to make sure that fans realize that a much bigger match is just over the horizon for Garcia.