Mikey Garcia: ‘Floyd Mayweather BEATS Errol Spence even today’

By Boxing News - 05/01/2020 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Mikey Garcia says he believes that 43-year-old Floyd Mayweather Jr. is still good enough at his age to defeat Errol Spence Jr. if the two were to fight. Mikey is reacting to Spence’s comments earlier this week in which he said: “100% focused, in my prime, I think I would beat Floyd.”

Mikey picking the aging Mayweather to beat Spence now could be interpreted as him being bitter about losing to Errol in 2019. Spence beat Mikey by a lopsided 12 round decision by the scores 120-107, 120-108, and 120-108.

Spence gave Mayweather problems sparring

A young Spence sparred with Mayweather seven-years ago in 2013, and he is said to have given Mayweather a lot of problems.  At the time, Mayweather blamed his problems with Spence on him being rusty due to him being in jail.

Mayweather’s weak pot-shotting style of fighting isn’t effective against a fighter like Spence, who just walks guys down and looking to hammer them with heavy shots. It was no fluke that Spence gave Mayweather huge headaches. He’s a bigger, stronger, and younger guy.

Mayweather not giving Spence credit for having gotten the best of him in sparring is disappointing, but it’s probably hard for him to acknowledge that he struggled.

Mayweather looks very slow and weak now, and he probably wouldn’t last long against Spence if they fought today. There are guys that Mayweather can problem beat at 147 to 160, but Spence isn’t one of them.

Image: Mikey Garcia: 'Floyd Mayweather BEATS Errol Spence even today'

Mayweather beats Spence even now

“I’m sure he feels like that, and every fighter should feel like he’s the best,” said Mikey Garcia to Fighthype in talking about Spence’s comment this week about how he believes he’d beat a prime Mayweather.

“You can’t go into a fight thinking your opponent is going to beat you. Being realistic, I doubt that. I think Floyd is the best and will always be among the greatest. I think he’s the best at this time. Even if they fight right now, I think Floyd still beats him,” said Mikey.

Mayweather would have nothing to hold Spence off of him. Although Mayweather is great at avoiding headshots, he’s vulnerable to getting hit to the body. That’s Spence’s specialty. He likes to throw body shots to wear down his opponents.

If Spence didn’t take it easy on Mayweather, he likely would knock him out during a sparring session. Mayweather had his day, but he’s old now and he hasn’t had a serious fight since he fought an injured one-armed Manny Pacquiao in 2015.

It’s been six years since Mayweather fought an opponent that had the talent and the health to put hands on him in his rematch with Marcos Maidana in 2014.

Image: Mikey Garcia: 'Floyd Mayweather BEATS Errol Spence even today'

Mikey: Floyd probably beats Spence

Floyd is that great, and I don’t know if Errol would be able to do well like that to beat Floyd,” said Mikey. “It would be a very good fight, and I’m sure Errol would put on a hell of a fight, but I still feel that Floyd would probably win.

“I think Floyd is the best I’ve seen. I know he’s the best I’ve seen, and I think he’ll be the greatest of all time. You can’t say he’s the greatest of all time because there are so many other fighters that can fight for that claim,” said Mikey.

It would be interesting to see Mayweather fight Spence now to see if Mikey is right, but that’s not happening. Mayweather has already said he’s retired from fighting boxers. The only thing he’s interested in is fighting MMA guys in boxing events, which he calls entertainment.

It’s not realistic to assume that Mayweather would beat Spence because he doesn’t have the power to deal with his style of fighting.

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