Eddie Hearn wants Mikey Garcia to return to 140-lb division

Image: Eddie Hearn wants Mikey Garcia to return to 140-lb division
October 15, 2021; Fresno, California, USA; Mikey Garcia and Sandor Martin pose after weighing in for their upcoming fight. The two will meet on the Matchroom Boxing card Saturday night at Chukchansi Park in Fresno, CA. Mandatory Credit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom.
By Boxing News - 10/16/2021 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Eddie Hearn says he’d like to see Mikey Garcia return to the 140-lb division because he lacks the size to be campaigning at 147. Mikey (40-1, 30 KOs) will be fighting Sandor Martin tonight at a catchweight of 145 lbs, but it’s not an ideal weight for him.

Mikey faces light welterweight contender Martin (38-2, 13 KOs) tonight in a 10-round headliner live on DAZN at the Chukchansi Park, in Fresno, CA.

Is Mikey just looking for cash-out fights?

It’s believed by some that the sole reason Mikey is insisting on campaigning at 147 is for money. They think Mikey is just looking for paydays in a cash-out approach to his once-great career.

It seems like a money-focused move on Mikey’s part, and it appears that he’s capitalizing on the success he had in the lower weight classes to get big paydays against fighters he has no hopes of ever beating.

We already saw Mikey trounced by IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. in 2019 in a dreadful mismatch.

On social medial boxing fans aren’t holding back their lack of interest in seeing Mikey fighting another easy mark gimme opponent.

Fans are paying monthly to see quality fights on DAZN, and they’re not pleased with seeing Mikey fight another weak opponent after his last disappointing fight against the over-the-hill relic Jessie Vargas.

Hearn notes that Mikey, 33, was the smaller guy in his welterweight fights against Errol Spence Jr. and Jessie Vargas in his last two contests.

Fans want to see quality fights and Mikey vs. Sandor Martin comes up short of the bar in meeting their expectations.

Although Mikey beat Vargas last year, it was from an easy fight because he wasn’t able to hurt him with his power at 147.

What was supposed to be an easy fight for Mikey turned out to be a real battle with him winning a 12 round unanimous decision.

Of the scores turned in by the three judges, the most realistic score was 114-113, which showed how narrow of a win it was for Mikey. Vargas is not a top-level fighter at 147, so it looked bad that Mikey had to struggle to be a guy like him.

Hearn says Mikey isn’t a 147-pounder

“I don’t really think he’s a 147-pounder,” said Eddie Hearn to Boxing Social about Mikey Garcia being too small to fight at welterweight.

Image: Eddie Hearn wants Mikey Garcia to return to 140-lb division

“I mean, you saw that Errol Spence, but Errol Spence is also a big welterweight as well. And I think he’s 140 pounds.

“135 was tough for him, but he’s just really, really good. He’s a guy that has the ability to win world championships at super featherweight, and featherweight before that, and lightweight.

“Then obviously going and fighting big Errol Spence and Jessie Vargas at 147. He [Mikey] can really fight across divisions.

“I just feel that looking at his [Mikey] size, and looking at guys like Montana Love at 140, he looks like 140 pounds.

“But for now, he’s at a catchweight [145] between welterweight and light welterweight as he is on Saturday,” said Hearn about Mikey.

It’s academic that Mikey ISN’T a 147-pounder and has no business fighting in that weight class other than for paydays. In terms of competitiveness and bringing value to fans, Mikey doesn’t belong inside the ring with any of the top 147-pounders.

Things aren’t likely to get better for Mikey at 140, though, because he’s too small for that weight class as well. Though Mikey beat Adrien Broner and Sergey Lipinets at 140, those guys aren’t top 140-pounders.

Neither of those fighters is anywhere near the elite level fighters at light welterweight like Josh Taylor, Jose Ramirez, Regis Prograis, Gervonta Davis, and Viktor Postol.

Prograis will Mikey’s lack of size

If Mikey defeats Martin tonight, his next fight could be against former WBA 140-lb champion Prograis in early 2022. This writer expects Prograis to wear down and stop Mikey.

With the many years that Mikey has been inactive, he’s not capable of beating a top-level 140-pounder like Prograis, which is why he might change his mind about taking this fight.

What we’ll likely see is Mikey being stopped on his stool as we saw in his fight with Orlando Salido many years ago. Mikey built up an early lead against Salido, but then complained of a broken nose and had the fight stopped in his corner.

At the time the fight was halted, Salido was taking over the contest and starting to wear Mikey down. It was obvious from watching the bout that Salido was going to stop Mikey in the later rounds if he had continued fighting.

We’ll likely see the same thing when Mikey fights Prograis. In other words, Mikey will build up an early lead and then complain of an injury after the midway point in the contest, forcing it to go to the cards. He would then win a technical decision and avoid another loss.

When Hearn sees how Mikey looks against Prograis, he’ll likely come to the conclusion that he’s not big enough to fight at 140 either because he’s not.

At 5’6″, Mikey is too small to be fighting guys like 5’10” Josh Taylor, 5’10” Jose Ramirez, and 5’11” Viktor Postol. Those guys are all big enough to be fighting at 147, and they’ll run over Mikey just as Spence did.

Sandor Martin ready to  nullify Mikey’s offense

“I’m confident of what I need to do and concentrated as well,” said Sandor Martin to Boxing Social on his fight with Mikey.

“I know he was in preparation for another southpaw [Regis] Prograis, but I’m going to show him I’m a special type of southpaw.

“What I need to do is be the more intelligent boxer in the ring, be the more complete, and nullify everything he’s going to do.

“So that’s what I have to do to be the better boxer inside the ring to walk away with the victory. Mikey is a very complete boxer, so it’s going to be very hard to apply to prepare to bring the ring. That’s why we’ve worked hard.

“He’s a human being and he makes errors. So what we’ve got to do is take advantage of those errors. So I’m very confident and prepared. Everyone is going to see what’s going to happen inside the ring on Saturday.

“They’re going to see the reality, so I’m not that worried about the judges. What I have to do is come and do my boxing and do my work and deliver the victory to my people,” said Martin.

If Sandor has done his homework from watching Mikey’s past fights, the best way to beat him is to do it with volume punching. Like Canelo Alvarez, Mikey throws very few punches, and he can easily be outworked by his opponents.

But like Canelo, it’s arguably hard to win rounds against him because of his popularity. Jessie Vargas fought well enough to win seven rounds against Mikey last year, and yet he found himself losing by wide scores by two of the judges.

For Sandor to beat the A-side Mikey tonight, he’s going to have to outland him by a wide margin and hope that the judges give him a fair shake when it comes to the scoring of the fight.

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