Salido vs. Garcia: Mikey faces a tough task on January 19th

By Boxing News - 12/26/2012 - Comments

garcia48By Dan Ambrose: Miguel “Mikey” Garcia (30-0, 26 KO’s) will be taking a monstrous jump up in class in his fight next month against WBO featherweight champion Orlando Salido (39-11-2, 27 KO’s) on January 19th at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Garcia, 25, has been fed mostly stiffs during his six-year pro career, and it’s helped pad his record and keep him unbeaten. However, it’s also likely hurt his career because he hasn’t been facing the guys like Yuriorkis Gamboa, Salido, Juan Manuel Lopez, Daniel Ponce De Leon, Billy Dib, Jayson Velez and Celestino Cabellero. These are fighters that Garcia should have mixed it up with by now but hasn’t.

It’s going to be really tough on Mikey because he’s really stiff with his upper body; he doesn’t throw many punches, and seems to fight like he expects everyone to fall over when he hits them. He’s not anymore of a puncher than Salido is, and he’s going to have to increase his work rate 10 fold if he wants to win because standing as stiff as a board in a straight up manner is going to get him really worked over by Salido.

Garcia didn’t look all that good in his last fight against Jonathan Victor Barros last November.

Garcia won by an 8th round knockout but he took a lot of shots in that fight, more than he ever had before and it wasn’t an easy fight for him all. Now Garcia is moving up against an even better fighter in Salido, and Garcia is going to have to really make drastic changes to his game if he wants to win this one. Garcia isn’t facing a journeyman like Mauricio Pastrana, one of his recent opponents.

Salido has been looking outstanding recently win his two knockout wins over Juan Manuel Lopez, his stoppage victory over Went Haye and his quick knockout of Moises Gutierrez. He’s looked really good in beating those guys, and if he fights like that against Mikey Garcia, then he’s going to be really hard to beat in this fight.



Comments are closed.