By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Mikey Garcia doesn’t consider it coincidental that Adrien Broner’s two losses came in welterweight fights.
Garcia has paid close attention to Broner’s career and knows it isn’t lip service when Broner says he is at his best at 140 pounds, the weight limit for their 12-round fight July 29 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn (Showtime). The unbeaten WBC lightweight champion has seen it with his own eyes.
“I think he might be in better shape at 140,” Garcia said recently. “He’s more determined and takes things more serious than when he has to fight at a higher weight. It just makes for a better fight.”
The two losses Cincinnati’s Broner (33-2, 24 KOs, 1 NC) suffered during his nine-year pro career were 12-round unanimous-decision defeats to Argentina’s Marcos Maidana and Las Vegas’ Shawn Porter.
The weight limit for his December 2013 fight against Maidana (35-5, 31 KOs), who was trained by Garcia’s trainer/older brother Robert Garcia, was the welterweight maximum of 147 pounds. The contract weight for his June 2015 fight against Porter (27-2-1, 17 KOs), who Broner dropped in the 12th round, was 144 pounds.
The 27-year-old Broner – who has won world titles at 130, 135, 140 and 147 pounds – is 5-0 in fights contested at or just above the super lightweight limit of 140 pounds. Garcia senses Broner is taking his sixth fight at that weight “a lot more” serious than most of his other fights.
“He knows the kind of fighter I am,” Garcia said. “You can tell he’s not disrespectful. He’s not being flashy, like other times. But when he’s at his ‘A’ game, he’s a real good fighter. He’s a beast in there.”
Despite that he is moving up from 135 to 140 pounds to battle Broner, Las Vegas and Internet sports books list Garcia (36-0, 30 KOs) as more than a 4-1 favorite over Broner.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.