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TL;DR version: I commend Mikey for fighting Spence, but that's irrelevant to the question of whether he ducked Loma or not, because the choice was never "Loma or Spence." There were always TWO choices. 1. "Do you want to fight Loma in your career?" and 2. "Do you want to fight Spence in your career?" Mikey said yes to 2 but no to 1. Why? Because as Mikey has said, he sees flaws in Spence that caused him to call for that fight. I guess he doesn't see flaws in Loma.
Fighting Spence was only a choice for Mikey until he decided he wanted to fight Spence in the future. At that point, the choice was already made, and Mikey could have gotten the Spence fight at any point in the next 2-3 years, before Spence moved up from 147. At that point, the only choice became, "Do I also want to fight Loma in my career, as well as Spence, or do I want to avoid Loma for all my career, and only fight Spence and whoever else?"
Because Loma's team has already said, 135 is his limit. He already moved up twice, in his late twenties at that when he was already fully grown, to chase Mikey Garcia. That should have been more than enough. Meanwhile Robert Garcia, Mikey's trainer and brother, said Mikey will never fight at 135 again after Spence, win or lose. So that means the moment Mikey chose to go to 147 to fight Spence, before taking care of business at 135 first with just one more fight, Mikey Garcia killed the Loma fight for good.
If you want to fight both Loma and Spence in your career, you fight Loma first at 135, then Spence at 147 after. If you don't want to fight Loma in your career, then you jump to 147 before fighting him, and have your team say you will never go back to 135, after you already heard Loma's team say 135 is his limit.
So it seems quite clear cut to me, actually. Mikey Garcia ducked Loma, which in hindsight, is not surprising, because both were at 126, Mikey moved up, Loma followed him to 130, Mikey basically retired, Loma followed him to 135, and now Mikey just said ***** it, if I go all the way to 147, he can't follow me anymore, because I am way bigger than him and the only reason we've even been in the same weight class repeatedly so far is because he fights at close to his natural weight while I drain down more than almost anyone in boxing to get an advantage. So I like Mikey as a fighter but I don't see how anyone can be a fan of his after this move. He blatantly ducked someone at least 20 pounds naturally smaller than him.
Fighting Spence was only a choice for Mikey until he decided he wanted to fight Spence in the future. At that point, the choice was already made, and Mikey could have gotten the Spence fight at any point in the next 2-3 years, before Spence moved up from 147. At that point, the only choice became, "Do I also want to fight Loma in my career, as well as Spence, or do I want to avoid Loma for all my career, and only fight Spence and whoever else?"
Because Loma's team has already said, 135 is his limit. He already moved up twice, in his late twenties at that when he was already fully grown, to chase Mikey Garcia. That should have been more than enough. Meanwhile Robert Garcia, Mikey's trainer and brother, said Mikey will never fight at 135 again after Spence, win or lose. So that means the moment Mikey chose to go to 147 to fight Spence, before taking care of business at 135 first with just one more fight, Mikey Garcia killed the Loma fight for good.
If you want to fight both Loma and Spence in your career, you fight Loma first at 135, then Spence at 147 after. If you don't want to fight Loma in your career, then you jump to 147 before fighting him, and have your team say you will never go back to 135, after you already heard Loma's team say 135 is his limit.
So it seems quite clear cut to me, actually. Mikey Garcia ducked Loma, which in hindsight, is not surprising, because both were at 126, Mikey moved up, Loma followed him to 130, Mikey basically retired, Loma followed him to 135, and now Mikey just said ***** it, if I go all the way to 147, he can't follow me anymore, because I am way bigger than him and the only reason we've even been in the same weight class repeatedly so far is because he fights at close to his natural weight while I drain down more than almost anyone in boxing to get an advantage. So I like Mikey as a fighter but I don't see how anyone can be a fan of his after this move. He blatantly ducked someone at least 20 pounds naturally smaller than him.
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