By Keith Idec
LOS ANGELES – Eduardo Garcia has been involved in boxing for many years.
Thus the veteran trainer knows now would be the perfect time for his son, Mikey Garcia, to fight Manny Pacquiao. The Filipino southpaw is a much smaller, older welterweight than Errol Spence Jr. and would afford the younger Garcia an opportunity to make a lot of money, as well as a shot at winning a world title in a fifth weight class.
Pacquiao (60-7-2, 39 KOs) also is a fresh off an impressive performance against Lucas Matthysse (39-5, 36 KOs, 1 NC), from whom Pacquiao won the WBA world welterweight title. The 39-year-old Pacquiao stopped Argentina’s Matthysse in the seventh round of their July 14 fight in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for his first knockout victory in nearly nine years.
Garcia-Pacquiao seems like a makeable bout because Pacquiao publicly has said his company, MP Promotions, will handle negotiations for his next fight, not Bob Arum’s Top Rank Inc. Top Rank, Pacquiao’s longtime promoter, also promoted Garcia until a contractual conflict led to Garcia buying himself out of their agreement in May 2016.
Nevertheless, the 28-year-old Spence presents much more danger for Garcia because he is bigger, stronger and 11 years younger than Pacquiao. The IBF/WBC lightweight champ has his mind made up, though, about moving up two weight classes for his next fight to challenge Spence (23-0, 20 KOs) for his IBF 147-pound title.
That didn’t stop Eduardo Garcia from asking Robert Garcia, Mikey’s older brother and trainer, to inquire about Pacquiao’s interest in facing Mikey Garcia next.
“Whatever we say is not gonna change Mikey’s mind, [his] idea of fighting Errol Spence,” Robert Garcia said in the post-fight press conference following Garcia’s unanimous-decision defeat of Robert Easter Jr. “So we’re gonna go for it. You know, we’ve talked to my dad and my dad tells me earlier today, after the fight, in the locker room, he says, ‘Contact Manny Pacquiao.’ My dad would rather go after Manny Pacquiao. He’s the WBA champion, but that just doesn’t interest Mikey. I think we’re gonna go straight into Errol Spence.”
The 30-year-old Garcia (39-0, 30 KOs) said after defeating Easter (21-1, 14 KOs) by unanimous decision that he would be ready to face Spence by November or December.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
