By Keith Idec
When Mikey Garcia agreed to fight Adrien Broner last week, the WBC lightweight champion couldn’t have made himself more clear.
The highest he is willing to go to battle Broner is 140 pounds.
Not 142. Not 147. Not anything other than the agreed-upon maximum of 140 pounds, the limit for the super lightweight division.
Broner assured Garcia that the weight wouldn’t be a problem and a deal for their intriguing, unforeseen fight was completed pretty quickly. Their 12-round fight, scheduled for July 29 at an undetermined site, was officially announced Thursday morning.
“I made it clear that I’m still a lightweight,” Garcia said Thursday during a conference call. “I feel that my best division right now is at 135, so I would not go any higher than 140 pounds for this fight with Adrien. So I made that very clear from the beginning, that if there was any discussion or talk about a fight with Adrien Broner, it would not be anything higher than 140 pounds. I’m glad Adrien Broner and his team agreed to that weight.”
The embattled Broner confidently stated Thursday that he’ll “make weight easy.” Garcia (36-0, 30 KOs) wants to believe Broner (33-2, 24 KOs), but that didn’t stop him from admitting that “there is some concern” that Broner won’t make the 140-pound limit.
The Oxnard, California, native is well within reason to think there’s at least a possibility Broner won’t be able to make 140 pounds. Broner’s past two opponents have dealt with weight issues that prevented the former four-division champion from making the initial contract weights for their fights.
Cincinnati’s Broner weighed in at 140½ pounds for his WBA super lightweight title defense against England’s Ashley Theophane in April 2016. Broner refused to try to come back to the scale at 140 pounds and was stripped of his title a day before stopping Theophane (40-7-1, 11 KOs) in the ninth round in Washington, D.C.
A few weeks before Broner’s last fight, Adrian Granados contended Broner gave him “a take-it or leave-it offer” to increase the original contract weight from 142 pounds to 147. Granados (18-5-2, 12 KOs) agreed because he didn’t want to lose a career-high $250,000 payday and lost a split decision in their 10-rounder February 18 in Cincinnati.
Those instances are in the back of Garcia’s mind as he prepares for a fight Showtime will televise.
“There is some concern and that’s why I made it clear that I wouldn’t go higher than 140,” Garcia said. “But he agreed, his team agreed, and it seems like he’s confident that he’s able to make 140. The last time he didn’t make it, maybe he wasn’t taking it that seriously. Maybe he was coming from personal issues and problems.
“I think now he’s probably more focused and ready to regain control of his career, and make the big name again. So he should be taking it very serious. And if he feels confident in making 140, then that’s great. That only makes for a much better fight. If he’s gonna be training better and preparing himself better to make the weight, then it’ll just make for a better fight.”
Showtime executive Stephen Espinoza said during the conference call that Broner would face a financial penalty if he weighs in higher than 140 pounds.
“My understanding is there is a weight penalty [in the contracts],” said Espinoza, Showtime Sports’ executive vice president and general manager. “We’re not gonna get into any details. But as you guys heard Adrien say, he agreed to it without much problem because he’s very confident he’ll make 140 for this big fight.”
Garcia isn’t sure if he would move forward with the fight if Broner can’t get down to 140 pounds.
“Well, we would have to consider options and consider other factors, to see if it’s still something that benefits me,” Garcia said. “Right now, we targeted 140 pounds, we agreed on 140, so that’s what I’m looking at. If later, before the fight, something that does come up, other issues, then I’ll make a decision at that point.”
Garcia couldn’t specify the monetary penalty Broner would face because, “There’s still some of the details that need to be finalized. But the fight is on and we both agreed at 140 pounds.”
The 29-year-old Garcia has fought just once at junior welterweight. He won that bout, his first fight after a 30-month layoff caused by a contractual conflict with former promoter Top Rank Inc., by stopping Elio Rojas (24-3, 14 KOs) in the fifth round July 30 at Barclays Center.
Garcia moved down to lightweight for his following fight. The former featherweight and super featherweight champion won the WBC 135-pound championship in that bout by recording a spectacular third-round knockout against Montenegro’s Dejan Zlaticanin (22-1, 15 KOs) on January 28 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Other than those two fights, Garcia has competed at 131 pounds or lower since he turned pro in July 2006.
The 27-year-old Broner made his pro debut as a lightweight in May 2008, but won the WBO super featherweight title as a 130-pounder in November 2011. He also won world titles at lightweight (135), super lightweight (140) and welterweight (147).
Broner moved up two divisions, from lightweight to welterweight, and defeated Paulie Malignaggi by split decision to win the WBA 147-pound championship in June 2013 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. He is 3-0 in fights for which he weighed in at or just below 140 pounds.
Broner considers the 140-pound division the weight class in which he belongs and insists he’ll have little difficulty making weight for his fight against Garcia.
“I have no problem with making the weight,” Broner said. “I have a reason. This fight gives me the reason to make 140 pounds. So I’m gonna make the weight no problem. Just like when I fought for the title, I made the weight easy.”
The title fight to which Broner referred was his 12th-round stoppage of Russia’s Khabib Allakhverdiev (19-2, 9 KOs) in October 2015. Broner won the vacant WBA super lightweight championship by winning that fight in Cincinnati.
He never defended that title because he came in overweight for his first defense against Theophane, yet remains confident he can come down to 140 pounds again.
“Making weight is not gonna be a problem,” Broner said. “[For previous camps] I was coming into at 180-plus. I’ve kept my weight down and I’ve been preparing to fight earlier in July. … I’ve kept my body in OK shape and I won’t have no problem making the weight.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.