Comments Thread For: Mikey Garcia: Arum is NOT Going To Allow Lomachenko Fight!

[JWHardin]

I don't think Arum is 100% to blame here, even as much as I hate that sob. Loma could get the fight with Garcia if he really wanted it. Loma knows that beating a 37 yr old Beltran, who has 7 losses for a belt will be much easier than a prime Garcia freshly off a big win at 135. Better to take on Mikey next year after he gets beat up at welterweight, and has to cut back down and is damaged goods. (I think Mikey will give a better account of himself than most think vs Spence)

Arum and Pacquiao played the game, each saying it was up to the other who they want fight next when it was convenient. Promoters work for the boxers, not the other way around. Some are just better at convincing them who to fight, and have ways to prevent the ones they don't want.

[Usetoloveboxing]

I'd like to see both Mikey and Loma push for the fight more. I dislike Arum and we know Mikey has the history there. But the attempt to establish the 'Mikey needs a huge challenge, that's how he's always been!' narrative is laughable, especially because it's from the same people who have always given him props for his intelligence and understanding of the boxing business. Now people want to pretend he's just chasing Spence for reasons of legacy and daring to be great and it has nothing to do with money.

This is a guy who had an offer to fight Linares and achieve the most significant win of his career, and he turned it down to jump up in weight because it was bigger money, nothing to do with being a great opponent major challenge as Lipinets does not match that description. Then acted all disappointed that Loma got to Linares first. We all mock Bob's 'yesterday I was lying, today I'm telling the truth' but with Mikey are supposed to believe 'previously I chose a pointless higher weight money fight over facing the top guy in my division, but today I'm GENUINELY doing it for legacy and not money'

He has been happy to fight the Zlaticanin, Lipinets types before but now Loma isn't available he can't bear to have another fight like that while trying to make a deal for April in the meantime? Guys like Arum and Hearn are snakes and love to do the 'OK we can do the fight but let's do a deal where they both have a build-up fight first to marinate' tactic, but he can avoid that by making a deal now for early 2019.

I also sense that if, after Mikey gets KTFO by Spence, then he moves back down and faces Loma at some point in 2019, the deluded Mikey fans will all say 'told you so, he wasn't scared of Loma!' rather than accept that they've been proven wrong and that actually he could've done a deal to face Loma and was just selling his 0 first to ensure he gets 2 paydays instead of 1.

Some people are acting like Mikey is a coward or has a particular fear of Loma, I don't see it that way. He's a smart guy and, like Khan deciding he may as well get the Canelo payday before facing big threats in his own division, is just playing the risk/reward game, he's put both fear and ego aside, thought over his options and made his choice.

For Loma, he's just had a serious surgery but either his body is ready for a tough fight or it isn't. Mikey is much better than Beltran but Beltran isn't a tomato can, if your shoulder isn't 100% then you shouldn't be facing a bigger, stronger guy who will put on 12 rounds of tough pressure. Doesn't matter if Beltran can't land a punch, it would only take one rough clinch to cause major damage if the shoulder isn't healed right and then you could lose the fight or be out a long time afterwards recovering. But OK let's say he is doing that fight no matter what, Loma will have heard all this Spence talk, he needs to be thinking that the Mikey fight might be heading away from him and never coming back and push his promoter or reach out to Mikey direct or whatever he needs to do to make it happen. Whether it's for December or the fight after that get something done. I like how Loma has pursued meaningful fights, and Garcia would be the most meaningful yet by some distance, he can't let it slip by without pushing for it.

I don't expect a fighter to be able to make any fight happen just by trying their best to get it. But I give a lot more credit to Wilder because he kept going for the AJ fight. He didn't just say 'well Hearn will never make it so I won't even try'. I expect the same from Mikey and Loma here.

Great post!

[Noelanthony]

I'd like to see both Mikey and Loma push for the fight more. I dislike Arum and we know Mikey has the history there. But the attempt to establish the 'Mikey needs a huge challenge, that's how he's always been!' narrative is laughable, especially because it's from the same people who have always given him props for his intelligence and understanding of the boxing business. Now people want to pretend he's just chasing Spence for reasons of legacy and daring to be great and it has nothing to do with money.

This is a guy who had an offer to fight Linares and achieve the most significant win of his career, and he turned it down to jump up in weight because it was bigger money, nothing to do with being a great opponent major challenge as Lipinets does not match that description. Then acted all disappointed that Loma got to Linares first. We all mock Bob's 'yesterday I was lying, today I'm telling the truth' but with Mikey are supposed to believe 'previously I chose a pointless higher weight money fight over facing the top guy in my division, but today I'm GENUINELY doing it for legacy and not money'

He has been happy to fight the Zlaticanin, Lipinets types before but now Loma isn't available he can't bear to have another fight like that while trying to make a deal for April in the meantime? Guys like Arum and Hearn are snakes and love to do the 'OK we can do the fight but let's do a deal where they both have a build-up fight first to marinate' tactic, but he can avoid that by making a deal now for early 2019.

I also sense that if, after Mikey gets KTFO by Spence, then he moves back down and faces Loma at some point in 2019, the deluded Mikey fans will all say 'told you so, he wasn't scared of Loma!' rather than accept that they've been proven wrong and that actually he could've done a deal to face Loma and was just selling his 0 first to ensure he gets 2 paydays instead of 1.

Some people are acting like Mikey is a coward or has a particular fear of Loma, I don't see it that way. He's a smart guy and, like Khan deciding he may as well get the Canelo payday before facing big threats in his own division, is just playing the risk/reward game, he's put both fear and ego aside, thought over his options and made his choice.

For Loma, he's just had a serious surgery but either his body is ready for a tough fight or it isn't. Mikey is much better than Beltran but Beltran isn't a tomato can, if your shoulder isn't 100% then you shouldn't be facing a bigger, stronger guy who will put on 12 rounds of tough pressure. Doesn't matter if Beltran can't land a punch, it would only take one rough clinch to cause major damage if the shoulder isn't healed right and then you could lose the fight or be out a long time afterwards recovering. But OK let's say he is doing that fight no matter what, Loma will have heard all this Spence talk, he needs to be thinking that the Mikey fight might be heading away from him and never coming back and push his promoter or reach out to Mikey direct or whatever he needs to do to make it happen. Whether it's for December or the fight after that get something done. I like how Loma has pursued meaningful fights, and Garcia would be the most meaningful yet by some distance, he can't let it slip by without pushing for it.

I don't expect a fighter to be able to make any fight happen just by trying their best to get it. But I give a lot more credit to Wilder because he kept going for the AJ fight. He didn't just say 'well Hearn will never make it so I won't even try'. I expect the same from Mikey and Loma here.

Damn that was long I just went to a middle paragraph and read that and if I liked the content went haphazardly through the post. If Americans started at the bottom paragraph they will read it all like I did but didn’t want to at first

[Usetoloveboxing]

When has ESPN ever had a PPV fight? I'm not a big fan of PPV fights AT ALL, but if any fight should be a PPV fight, it's Garcia vs. Lomachenko, and Spence Jr. vs. Crawford! I'd spend $70 to see either of those fights, before I would pay to see Canelo vs. GGG II, or Wilder vs. Joshua!

I'd pay 100 to see either of those fights. Wished boxing would get out of it's own way and let fights happen.

[Bronx2245]

That’s one way

December 7, 2017:

Top Rank's CEO Bob Arum has made it no secret that he's no fan of the current leadership at HBO Sports, but he's more than willing to have a working relationship with Showtime and their parent company, CBS.

Earlier this year, Arum's company parted ways with HBO and signed an exclusive multi-year agreement with ESPN.

However, there are big fights to be made with fighters who may be contracted elsewhere.

For example, one of Arum's star fighters, Terence Crawford, is heading up to the welterweight division - but the bulk of the welterweight talent, and the welterweight champions, are tied to Showtime.

Arum has no problem with working out a talent trade relationship with Showtime Sports head Stephen Espinoza - an arrangement where the two sides would make talent available to each other for necessary fights.

The veteran promoters realizes that it's not realistic to believe that every significant fight involving one his boxers will end up on ESPN.

"Lets not look at promoters particularly, lets look at networks. Over at Showtime, Espinoza is a very smart guy. And his boss is a very big fight fan, a good friend of mine, Les Moonves, and Moonves will make these fights happen. They can't all be on ESPN nor can they all be on Showtime - so there is something called trade," Arum told BoxingScene.com.

https://www.boxingscene.com/bob-arum...owtime--123187

January 5, 2018:

Stephen Espinoza is intrigued by the idea of having boxers tied to Showtime getting in the ring to face fighters affiliated with ESPN through Top Rank’s partnership with that network.

Of course, such synergy will be complicated and will require compromise from both sides. But Espinoza’s willingness to at least discuss matchups fans want to see – most notably Errol Spence Jr. (Showtime) against Terence Crawford (ESPN) – should be considered an encouraging sign for boxing fans...

“At a certain level, anything’s worth a conversation, particularly if there’s a way to get big fights done or interesting fights done,” Espinoza said. “At a certain point, though, if I look at Keith Thurman or Errol Spence or Shawn Porter or Danny Garcia, for that matter, they’ve got a lot of potential fights lined up. They’ve got a lot of unfinished business without thinking about having to go over to another network to fight.

“Look, if fights present themselves that make sense, we’ll have the discussion. But not only do we have guys with full dance cards, it’s not always as simple as trading fighters. It’s not like trading baseball cards or Pokemon cards. When you’ve put a lot of time and energy and financial investment into developing a group of fighters, or a particular fighter, only to see that fighter go somewhere else for a potentially career-defining fight, it’s tough to sort of identify something that is similarly valuable in return. It’s not just, ‘Here are two similarly known boxers. Let’s trade them.’ It’s not quite as simple as it may seem. But having said all of that, there are always challenges to making deals. If there’s a fight and there’s a demand for it, then we’ll do everything we can to make it happen, as long as it’s under reasonable business conditions and we’re getting value for what we’ve put into the development of the opportunity.”

https://www.boxingscene.com/espinoza...boxers--124009

[Bronx2245]

I'd pay 100 to see either of those fights. Wished boxing would get out of it's own way and let fights happen.

The question is will "casuals" pay $100?

[Shadoww702]

Watch more boxing lol Timing cures all of that. There's no better fighter in the game at timing guys than Garcia. Trust, if it was such an easy fight, Arum would be demanding the fight (and would pay anything to get it). His matchmakers aren't dumb. His behavior on the matter makes it fairly clear what they think.

I laughed my ass of at that DOPES claim that "Mikey wont even land a glove on Loma"... Some ppl are beyond stupid.

[Shadoww702]

Arum has already stated that unless Garcia wants to fight on ESPN and accept the monetary offer on the table - the fight will not happen.

Thats ALL anyone needs to read.The rest is fluff and BS.

[Butch.McRae]

I laughed my ass of at that DOPES claim that "Mikey wont even land a glove on Loma"... Some ppl are beyond stupid.

I used to not get it at one point too, so I'm not judging lol I was just a kid from Detroit who liked watching boxing because of family.

But after actually going to a gym and getting my ass kicked for a few years and watching hundreds (maybe a few thousand now) of rounds, I finally know how to analyze a fight. You honestly can't fully appreciate how good some guys are until you educate yourself.

But there are a lot of people who know better who hype fighters too far and will mislead the less informed. This Lomachenko hype is a prime example of that. He's an amazing fighter, but he's not Mayweather good (probably not even prime-Oscar good), but let some tell it, he's on his way to being a top 10 P4P fighter ever. It's crazy lol

It's like people who think Floyd jr. could've beat SRL or Hearns in their prime. Those sort of ideas are not based on an informed view of boxing. You gotta be humble enough to admit what you don't know.

[Usetoloveboxing]

The question is will "casuals" pay $100?

True, doubt most know who Spence, Crawford, Loma, or Mikey even are.