Comments Thread For: Jorge Linares Very Interested in Unification With Mikey Garcia

[hitking]

Okay, gotcha. I would say that it's harsh to criticise Roy's Light Heavyweight run (the Michalczewski situation was a shame but it was mutual, not all on Jones)

Michalczewski's only real gripe in that situation was that technically, he was the lineal champ. But Roy was the universally recognized top light heavy. Sibhe should have brought his ass over here to fight him.

That said, my only beef is that all of a sudden, everybody is bely crazy again. A belt doesn't make a guy legit. And the top guys don't need belts to legitimize themselves.

[NEETzsche]

As a fan, I wanna see the biggest fights. And the biggest fights for Mikey are Lomachenko and Crawford, maybe Manny. Broker is big, but for reasons unrelated to actual in-ring competition. I'm very aware of the political roadblocks that could prevent all of those fights from happening. At the same time, I'm not gonna pretend that those fights aren't the ones I most want to see. And while I wouldn't kill Mikey for fighting the likes of Linares and Easter. I'm not gonna pretend that those are A-quality match-ups just because they put "unification" on the fight poster, especially a Linares fight. If Easter notches a couple great performances in there in the next couple fights. Sure, my excitement for a Mikey fight would grow. But again, I'm not gonna pretend that Easter didn't just go life-n-death with a B level fighter just because he has some dip**** belt.

The thing is we don't know that Mikey is #1 at 135 yet. Like you, I strongly suspect that he is, but he needs to beat at least one of the other top guys to give us the proof. Divisional rankings are just speculation, no better than P4P rankings, until the ranked fighters actually face each other. Beating Zlaticanin was a foot in the door, but beating Linares would put the discussion to rest. The straps themselves aren't the be-all and end-all, but in a division with no clear champion like Lightweight at the moment, unifying a couple of them separates you from the crowd

Plus I like Mikey at 135 because I feel it's the division that best suits his physical dimensions. At 140 he's already past his optimal weight and entering every fight at a disadvantage

[hitking]

The thing is we don't know that Mikey is #1 at 135 yet. Like you, I strongly suspect that he is, but he needs to beat at least one of the other top guys to give us the proof. Divisional rankings are just speculation, no better than P4P rankings, until the ranked fighters actually face each other. Beating Zlaticanin was a foot in the door, but beating Linares would put the discussion to rest. The straps themselves aren't the be-all and end-all, but in a division with no clear champion like Lightweight at the moment, unifying a couple of them separates you from the crowd

Plus I like Mikey at 135 because I feel it's the division that best suits his physical dimensions. At 140 he's already past his optimal weight and entering every fight at a disadvantage

I'm not opposed to Mikey cleaning up things at 35. And if he can't get immediate fights with bigger named guys outside the lightweight division, that's the route I hope he takes. I'm just speaking out of a preference of what I'd rather see.

[Bigg Rigg]

He was not stripped, hes champion in recess in addition the WBC sanctioned the Crolla fight as unification and also ordered Linares vs. Zlat provided that he won the unification vs. Crolla - now that role falls on Garcia.

That's stripped to me. We "sharing" the belt now. You just stripped me of my superiority and that's what differentiates champions and contenders. So you're technically correct but for me I would feel like I was stripped. Have to see some other dude with the belt and ppl are calling him the WBC lightweight champion.