By Matt Lieberman: Mikey Garcia is looking powerful in training for his October 16th headliner fight against Spanish fighter Sandor Martin on DAZN at the Chukchansi Park in Fresno, California.
The 33-year-old former four-division world champion Mikey (40-1, 30 KOs) is fighting a 10-rounder against Martin (38-2, 13 KOs) after being out of the ring for 19 months.
We don’t know if Mikey can still bring in the viewers as he did before, as he’s been inactive for a long, long time, and a lot of fans have forgotten about him.
Mikey recently said in an interview that he was hoping to fight former WBA light welterweight champion Regis Prograis, but the money wasn’t there from DAZN to make that match a reality.
Promoter Eddie Hearn revealed that the money that Mikey and Prograis wanted for their fight was too much for DAZN. They let Mikey know what they felt the battle with Prograis was worth, and he disagreed.
As a result, Mikey will be fighting fringe 140-pound contender Sandor Martin, who isn’t a big name in the U.S, but he’s famous in his native Spain.
Mikey needs big ratings for Martin fight
Hearn says they’ll revisit the Mikey-Prograis fight after they look at the numbers for Mikey’s October 16th clash against the 28-year-old Sandor.
If the fight brings in many new subscribers on DAZN, that will increase Mikey’s chances of getting the kind of money he was asking for to fight Prograis.
“‘Couldn’t afford?’ [you mean we] Didn’t agree with the purses they [Mikey and Prograis] wanted. It’s two different things,” said Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn to ESNEWS in reacting to a comment from Mikey that DAZN couldn’t afford to pay for his fight with Regis Prograis.
“I don’t think DAZN had a problem affording anything,” said Hearn. “It’s just that they’ve become smarter frankly, and they needed to be.
“When they entered the U.S market, no one knew who DAZN was, and very few people knew who I was. We had to come in, overspend and make statements.
“Now, they know the value of fights. When we go into purse bid scenarios, it might be Lopez-Kambosos; we have a value of what we believe that fight is worth.
“We have a value of what we believe the Mikey Garcia vs. Regis Prograis fight is worth. Unfortunately, they didn’t agree, and we didn’t agree. So we didn’t do it.
“So, I said [to Mikey Garcia], ‘You haven’t boxed for 19 months, let’s come out and box the biggest star in Spanish boxing in Sandor Martin, who headlines all our shows. Come back, and then we’ll revisit Regis Prograis against Mikey Garcia once we look at the numbers for your fight with Sandor Martin.’
Mikey vs. Prograis to be revisited
“It’s not a huge amount of money for why we pulled out [of purchasing the Mikey Garcia vs. Prograis fight]. We [DAZN] think it’s worth this, and you [Mikey] think it’s worth that. In the meantime, let’s do this [Mikey vs. Sandor Martin], and then we’ll discuss that.
“I would love to make that fight, by the way,” said Hearn about the Mikey vs. Prograis clash.
Mikey reportedly got $7 million for his last bout against former WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas in February 2020 at the Ford Center in Frisco, Texas.
Some believe that Mikey was dramatically overpaid for that fight, as Vargas is no longer a top-rated contender at 147 at this point in his career.
The Mikey-Vargas fight would have made more sense five years ago in 2016 when Jessie was still at the top of his game, but he’s done nothing since losing his WBO 147-lb belt to Manny Pacquiao.
