Mikey Garcia of Oxnard won his first and only world championship in January when he took a wide eight-round technical decision over Orlando Salido at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Garcia had taken his bite out of the Big Apple and it tasted good.
Of course, it did. Garcia, still just 25, was in his seventh year as a pro and had been on the rise for a while. He was hoping for a shot at the title, got it and won it.
But things quickly turned sour. Just five months later, he lost his featherweight title on the scale when he couldn’t make weight for his first defense against Juan Manuel Lopez. He was supposed to weigh no more than 126 pounds, but he couldn’t get under 128.
It was, indeed, a crushing blow.
“Very disappointing,” said Garcia, who tonight will move up in weight and challenge Rocky Martinez of Puerto Rico for his super featherweight title at American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, Texas (on HBO). “I was very sad. I worked very hard to get that title.
“I waited over two years in line to get that title shot and to not be able to defend, and lose it on the scale, it was hard.”
Garcia recalled the moments before the weigh-in, when he realized he was not going to make weight and his championship belt would be gone.
“As we were walking down the elevator and through the hallways going to the weigh-in knowing I was no longer champion, I just tried to move forward and do the best that I could,” he said.
Garcia’s older brother, Robert, trains him. The elder Garcia noted how difficult it was for his younger brother to get down to 128, and the team wasn’t sure how well the fight with Lopez would go. Lopez, a former champion, was the only one who could walk out of the ring with the belt. But it remained vacant when Garcia stopped him in the fourth round.
“It was a little bit of uncertainty on our part because we weren’t 100 percent sure if my body was going to be able to recover to be able to fight to the best of my capabilities,” Garcia said. “We were worried that my body would not be able to take a punch as well, that I may tire soon, that I may not be 100 percent. But everything went well. I started feeling confident after the first round.”
Garcia’s mental toughness that allowed him to push on and get a TKO over Lopez, rather than falling apart emotionally and getting stopped himself, likely is a reason why Garcia is getting a shot at another title.
He’s certainly not taking it for granted.
“I feel very happy to have this opportunity after what happened in the last fight,” he said. “To lose the title on the scale and to be given an opportunity to fight for a world title is great.”
Garcia (32-0, 27 KOs) also is getting a shot quickly in the next weight class up because he is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. People want to see him in title fights and people want to see him on television.
How good is he? He is favored to win even even though he is the challenger and is stepping up in weight. Suffice to say that rubs Martinez (27-1-2, 16 KOs) the wrong way.
“I should be the favorite,” he said. “I am the champion and I am the naturally bigger guy. I am strong and prepared myself well and I believe I am going to win this fight because of that.”
No, he won’t. Garcia is just too good.
“I feel that I am the smarter guy and I am stronger and faster, so I feel that the possibility of my winning this fight is very high,” Garcia said, correctly. But he’s also trying to help the promotion.
“I know it is not an easy fight at all. I know how strong he is,” he said.
The rest of the televised portion of this card is strong, too. Aside from the main event, super bantamweights Nonito Donaire (31-2, 20 KOs) and Vic Darchinyan (39-5-1, 28 KOs) will revisit their 2007 flyweight title fight won by Donaire via fifth-round TKO. Vanes Martirosyan (33-0-1, 21 KOs) of Glendale will take on Demetrius Andrade (19-0, 13 KOs) for a vacant junior middleweight title.
Ward anxious for return
When last we saw super middleweight champion Andre Ward, he was stopping Chad Dawson in the 10th round in September, 2012 at Oracle Arena in Ward’s native Oakland. Ward later found out he needed shoulder surgery and has been on the shelf since.
Ward is one week away from his return, as next Saturday he’ll defend his title against Edwin Rodriguez of the Dominican Republic in the main event at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario (on HBO).
It will have been 14 months since Ward’s last fight, and he can’t wait.
“It’s difficult to be sidelined,” Ward said after a recent training session. “And as an HBO commentator, it’s very difficult. Especially watching guys that are in and around my weight class.”
Ward was asked to recall the most challenging part of dealing with his down time. His answer was not surprising.
“The waiting game and not knowing when I was going to come back was probably the toughest part,” he said. “I’m approaching my prime and coming off the biggest victory of my career over Chad Dawson.
“That in and of itself is tough, but I thank God for the strength to push me through tough times.”
Ward, 29, is 26-0 with 14 knockouts. Rodriguez, 28, is 24-0 with 16 knockouts.
The latest news from the Magomed Abdusalamov camp is the heavyweight fighter suffered a stroke while he was in a medically induced coma after surgery to remove a blood clot from his brain following last Saturday’s loss to Mike Perez of Cuba. It was the semi-main event to the middleweight title fight between Gennady Golovkin and Curtis Stevens at Madison Square Garden. Abdusalamov remains on life support. ... The once-canceled junior middleweight title fight between “Sugar” Shane Mosley of Pomona and Anthony Mundine (44-5, 26 KOs) of Australia allegedly is back on for Nov. 27 in Sydney, Australia, according to an Associated Press report. Mosley (47-8-1, 39 KOs) walked away from the original bout slated for Oct. 23 because he said the Australian-based promoter was guilty of breach of contract. Mundine and his manager on Thursday claimed the fight is on again after Mosley was guaranteed a purse of $1 million up front. ... Lightweight contender John Molina (26-3, 21 KOs) of Covina was added to next Saturday’s card at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario. His opponent is still to be determined. ... We are two weeks away from the Nov. 23 welterweight fight between Manny Pacquiao (54-5-2, 38 KOs) and Brandon Rios (31-1-1, 23 KOs) from Macao, China (on HBO pay-per-view).