By Ryan Burton
LAS VEGAS - World class trainer Robert Garcia was in Sin City this past week and picked up two victories on the Ryota Murata-Rob Brant undercard. His fighters, Joseph Adorno and Esquiva Falcao, both notched wide decision wins.
His brother, WBC/IBF lightweight champion Mikey Garcia, is expected to be back in the ring soon. It was thought that he would face his mandatory challenger Richard Commey next but the IBF recently ordered a purse bid and according to his brother, he still may move up two weight classes to welterweight to face the division's boogeyman, IBF champion Errol Spence.
"As of right now I don't know if that mandatory is official either. As of right now I am thinking Mikey will take that challenge against Errol Spence. There is no word about him fighting the mandatory. I know its already announced they made a deal but Mikey hasn't told me anything. Until he tells me who it is then I will know but he will fight early next year," said Garcia.
WBA welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao recently joined the Premier Boxing Champions side of the street and Garcia has had had interest in fighting the Filipino for several years. Robert said that he and Mikey both really want that fight but that Pacquiao didn't want to jump immediately into that type of showdown.
"Look, to what I understand Pacquiao was offered to fight Mikey but Pacquiao wanted a fight before that. Broner is the guy who is going to take Pacquiao so good for Broner. Broner is good for TV. He is good for the press conference and good for boxing with his attitude. Hopefully if Pacquiao beats him maybe Mikey will still be there and maybe Mikey can take that fight. We don't know right now but Pacquiao versus Broner is going to be a great fight," Garcia told BoxingScene.com.
Pacquiao turns 40 in December and only has a few fight left before he calls it quits and ends his Hall of Fame career. Garcia understands that he wants to maximize his earning potential before hanging up his gloves and wants to be as sharp as possible for a potential fight against someone like his brother who is in most experts top 5 pound-for-pound lists.
"From what I heard Pacquiao wanted a fight before a fight with Mikey so you can't blame him either," Garcia stated.
Mikey went 2-0 in 2018, defeating Sergey Lipinets by unanimous decision in March to win the vacant IBF super lightweight title and then unified lightweight titles in July when he won a wide decision over Robert Easter Jr. in Los Angeles.
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