Mikey has been talking about fighting at 147 and specifically Keith Thurman for a while now. If he beats Lipinets and becomes a 4 division champion, he's not going to resist the opportunity to go for number 5.
It doesn't seem like Mikey is gonna get the fights with Loma or Linares, so I can see him testing the waters at 147 later this year.
The fight would would be easy to sell and generate good numbers. Mikey, a p4p fighter challenging the unified welterweight champ, who is also a p4p fighter, to become a 5 division champ. Both undefeated, both skilled and power punchers.
I think 147 is going to be a step too far for Mikey like it was for Marquez. But I can definitely see the fight happening.
Mikey has been talking about fighting at 147 and specifically Keith Thurman for a while now. If he beats Lipinets and becomes a 4 division champion, he's not going to resist the opportunity to go for number 5.
It doesn't seem like Mikey is gonna get the fights with Loma or Linares, so I can see him testing the waters at 147 later this year.
The fight would would be easy to sell and generate good numbers. Mikey, a p4p fighter challenging the unified welterweight champ, who is also a p4p fighter, to become a 5 division champ. Both undefeated, both skilled and power punchers.
I think 147 is going to be a step too far for Mikey like it was for Marquez. But I can definitely see the fight happening.
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Only in the current era could a fighter as basic as Mikey Garcia be on the doorstep of 4 division "titles."
I hope Mikey doesn't move up to 147 too soon as i want to see him unify against the Prograis-Indongo and Barthelemy-Relikh winners. Those are more winnable fights than Thurman, Spence etc.
Mikey has been talking about fighting at 147 and specifically Keith Thurman for a while now. If he beats Lipinets and becomes a 4 division champion, he's not going to resist the opportunity to go for number 5.
Depends on your definition of soon. Mikey likely ends this year at 135 or 140 and doesn't even test 147 until next year. A fight with Thurman could be a couple years away.
Right now Mikey is a man without a country. He can't move back down to 140 and he has outgrown the 135 weight division; So one can rule out a match up between either himself Linares or Loma.
So his only option is at 147. However, I would rather he face Vargas or perhaps even a Danny Garcia before either entertaining the idea of challenging a Thurman, Spence or Porter and we already know he's going nowhere near Terence Crawford.
One thing I forgot to mention is they're both with Showtime and advised by Al Haymon, so there won't be any politics or obstacles in the way
He can't even fight Easter, a fellow PBC fighter.
And would rather pick someone nobody has heard of.
The guy is a joke.
Sometimes when an opponent isn't willing to take a chance or shells up, its hard to do too much to him, considering his best chances of stopping Broner would have been on counters.
Pacquiao couldn't do sh*t to Clottey because he refused to make himself available and basically did everything to simply lose by points, regardless of how much more of an inferior fighter he was. I mean, Garcia opened himself up by throwing so much himself, he was outboxing with a low workrate in the beginning rounds so it wasn't all workrate, and he even dropped his hands during round 8, and Broner still didn't bite.
Let's also not get it twisted, if Broner would have opened up he would have gotten leveled, Garcia only outworked him to keep him shelled up, but he would have outboxed him regardless of Broner's activity level like he did at the beginning of the fight.
Also important to note that Garcia has only been in light workouts so far, no one has actually seen what he can actually do yet, really.
I don't know why Garcia would need to out-dog Danny considering he is a boxer and a much better one than Danny at that.
I'm not talking triangle theory wise.
Everything Herrera already did to Danny or that gave him a lot of problems can be replicated by Garcia. His jab and defense are already good enough to recreate the sloppiness which was Danny's offense trying to force it to land. Herrera uses his feet more, but Garcia can parry and has better control of range.
Danny loads up too much and focuses on his left hook and his right, limiting his offense and making him more predictable. The jab worked great for Herrera as feints, and for drawing out Danny's power shots to either wait and counter or to reset. Herrera is also more of a reactive counter-puncher. Garcia can and would lay traps, and Danny will move into them, he won't win the outside game. Herrera didn't need power to beat Danny. Garcia doesn't either.
Clottey-Pacquiao is not really comparable to be honest. You are talking about one of the 25 best fighters that ever lived in his prime against a guy who basically couldn't be hurt throughout his career in Clottey. Broner can be got, but Mikeys power didn't really seem to bother him too much, in fact he got bolder in the last few rounds and at least tried to come forward, and I'm pretty sure he hurt Mikey with a body shot in the last. I would bet Mikey can still punch but these bigger guys can hold the shots better.
I told you I don't do triangle theories so not touching Herrera. He fights nothing like Mikey so it's a non-starter for me. We have all seen Danny Garcia's weaknesses but I think you are vastly underestimating him and not taking enough note of Mikey size deficit. Danny isnt just left hook right hand, he has a good jab, great anticipation, timing, and knows how to win fights. I think it's a 50-50.
Don't forget that Mikey's been on the floor multiple times at lighter weights, and hurt, I'm not sure why you say he s only been in light workouts and never out of first gear. You are very good at describing what Mikey CAN do, I'll tell you what he doesn't do, is move his head very much, and also based on the evidence we have seen if he gets hit by some of these bigger guys head or body, he's not going to walk through it. The firepower coming back at him alone will change his approach and the complexion of a typical Mikey fight that we have seen in the lower weights. We saw a bit of it against Broner, but Danny, Porter, Thurman, Spence, Crawford are not Broner, they are all much better fighters, and bigger stronger fighters.
I'll agree to disagree with you on this, but happy to pick up the convo after things have played out a bit more.
Garcia doesn't really want the fights with either Linares or Loma imo. If he did, they'd be getting made.
Bingo if he aint gonna fight a mobile 35pder then he is not gonna fight a mobile 47pder.And to be fair Thruman is TOO big.
Mikey has been talking about fighting at 147 and specifically Keith Thurman for a while now. If he beats Lipinets and becomes a 4 division champion, he's not going to resist the opportunity to go for number 5.
It doesn't seem like Mikey is gonna get the fights with Loma or Linares, so I can see him testing the waters at 147 later this year.
The fight would would be easy to sell and generate good numbers. Mikey, a p4p fighter challenging the unified welterweight champ, who is also a p4p fighter, to become a 5 division champ. Both undefeated, both skilled and power punchers.
I think 147 is going to be a step too far for Mikey like it was for Marquez. But I can definitely see the fight happening.
If you mean soon as never then yes
???
lol at Danny as a benchmark. People really overrate welterweight.
Guys like Herrera (who Garcia is better than in every facet of boxing while being similar style wise) kicked his ass, and 126 pounders like Robert Guerrero who got his ass shut out 12-0 by Orlando Salido can be competitive with him. And Danny himself was competitive with Thurman. Pillow fists like Collazo can catch and hurt Thurman. Garcia hasnt even been out of first gear either. Is it really that hard to believe that Garcia can beat them?
I don't really get involved with triangle theories. What I can say for sure is that Broner as a more linear comparison, is at least one full level below any of the elite fighters at 147. Mikey was not able to shift, hurt or open Broner up much, he just outworked him and his consistency and persistence was the deciding factor. It was a great performance from Mikey, don't get me wrong, I don't want to come across like I didn't think it was. In the moment I turned to my friend and said what a special fighter Mikey is, but in the context of this thread it was also a revealing one. I personally think his ceiling as a truly elite fighter is 140lbs, I think above that he will struggle. I didn't feel like he carried the weight amazingly well, he looked a little sluggish, maybe he will acclimate given time...time will tell.
I think Mikey and Danny is a competitive fight for sure, but based on what I saw I would lean towards Danny slightly. Danny isn't someone that you can out-dog him out of there like you can with Broner, Mikey is the better boxer in a pound 4 pound sense but size matters and it changes things. As I said Mikey does most things extremely well, but I'm looking at the things he doesn't do well and how that will translate as he moves up in weight and especially at 140 and above where he can't rely on his power to change the momentum within rounds or the fight overall.
Garcia didn't really seriously hurt Broner, though he convincingly beat him. Mikey is a small guy, so I don't see him bringing enough size and certainly not enough power to compete successfully @ WW. Let's not forget the old adage: "A good big man beats a good little man (almost) every time".
If he gets through all his mandatories and Spence i could definitely see it happening sometime in 2019. Won't be easy though but Mikey will definitely look to fight whoever is the kingpin at 147 next year.
To me he seems like he's flirting with doing a Broner and messing his career up. The Malignaggi fight was Broners warning shot that he was going to struggle to be competitive with the top guys at 147.
Ironically for Mikey it was Broner himself that is his warning shot, let's see if he learns from it. Yes Mikey clearly beat Broner, and is a much better fighter, but he struggled in many aspects of his performance and a lot of what he does revolves around his power and the threat of that power. If you take that away from him, he isn't skilled enough to make up the difference against guys who are already very skilled, bigger, elite fighters. He is extremely technical and fundamentally sound but I dont see the many wrinkles that you need to go up 20+ pounds and still be elite.
I think Robert Garcia knows what time it is, he basically said that Mikey COULD beat some of the Welterweights, but stylistically they would have to be the right ones. THAT I agree with.
I think there is a fair chance you see him in with one of those 147lbers in the next 18 months. But he would be better off making big fights with Loma and Linares and then attempting that. I have a bad feeling that ain't going to happen, and he will end up in the ring with a Thurman, Danny, or Spence, and he will probably get blasted.