Lightweight world titleholder Mikey Garcia, one of boxing’s pound-for-pound best, is thinking big — as in the 147-pound weight class.
Although Garcia is just days away from a very significant 135-pound world title unification fight against fellow undefeated titlist Robert Easter Jr. on Saturday (Showtime, 10 p.m. ET) at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, he said that should he prevail he will seek a fight with Errol Spence Jr., also one of the sport’s elite and a man who is a dominant force at welterweight, two weight classes heavier than the one Garcia boxes in.
In recent weeks Garcia has mentioned his interest in challenging Spence for his title at the end of the year, but he gave expansive comments on the topic to The Boxing Beat, the weekly ESPN+ news and interview show.
“I’m very serious,” Garcia said about his interest in the fight. “I know sometimes people don’t take me seriously. They think I’m just big talk [and that] I’m not ready for that, I’m too small, I’m not big enough for that kind of guy. He’s too much of a threat. I know I’m not big and I’m not at the size I should be to go to welterweight. I know it’s a huge threat. I know it’s a dangerous fight for me. But those are all the reasons I want to do it.”
Garcia (38-0, 30 KOs), 30, has won world titles at featherweight, junior lightweight, lightweight and junior welterweight. After he won a junior welterweight belt by outpointing Sergey Lipinets in February, he decided to return to lightweight for the unification fight with Easter (21-0, 14 KOs).
For years, Garcia has talked about his desire for the biggest, most lucrative fights he can make. A fight with Spence (24-0, 21 KOs), 28, of Dallas, would be an enormous event and is a makeable fight given that they both work with adviser Al Haymon and are associated with Showtime.
Spence was a 2012 U.S. Olympian who won a welterweight title in May 2017 by traveling to Kell Brook’s hometown of Sheffield, England, and knocking him out in the 11th round. He has defended the title twice, with a stoppage of former titlist Lamont Peterson in the seventh round in January followed by a first-round destruction of mandatory challenger Carlos Ocampo in a Dallas homecoming fight on June 16. During the buildup to that fight, Spence said he would be interested in the fight if Garcia was serious.
“I’m here to challenge myself. That’s where it came from,” Garcia said of his idea for the fight. “I want to see the biggest challenge and he happens to be the biggest challenge right now. I think that’s a tougher fight for me than a [Vasiliy] Lomachenko [unification] fight. Lomachenko fight for me would be an easier fight. But if that’s not available I’m going to go after the biggest challenge. In order to cement my name and be established and be recognized as the best of this generation, that’s the kind of fight I have to take.”
Robert Garcia, Mikey’s brother and trainer, has voiced his misgivings about the fight and told ESPN that when his brother originally brought it up to him he thought it was a joke, though when he realized his brother was serious, he said he would give him his full support.
“He and my dad [Eduardo, also a boxing trainer] both kind of disagree with me,” Garcia said with a laugh. “They don’t want to me take it. They suggest I don’t take that fight, that I don’t pursue that fight. They keep telling me I have not business there. There’s nothing for me to do at 147, [that] I’m a lightweight, maybe even super lightweight. ‘Why would you want to go to welterweight? There’s no need to go to welterweight. Let’s get all these fights at lightweight where you’re more comfortable, where you’re fighting men your size.’
“But, like I said, I’m here to challenge myself and prove to everybody that I’m the best in this generation. And I think if I take the fight with Errol Spence, after I beat him no one can deny me that credit. No one can deny that I am the best.”
Unlike many fighters, Garcia said he would not seek a catchweight for the bout that would require Spence to at least drop a few pounds under the 147-pound division maximum weight.
“No, no, no. No catchweights with me,” Garcia said. “I’m going to 147 [but] I’ll come in light. I’ll come in at 142 or 144, whatever, but I ain’t asking for no catchweight. If I’m gonna challenge myself it’s gonna be at that limit. He’s a welterweight; 147 is the limit.”