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Philippines, 12 May 2025 |
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Unified lightweight champ Mikey Garcia now wants Errol Spence's 147-pound belt By Eddie Alinea PhilBoxing.com Tue, 31 Jul 2018  Having unified the World Boxing Council and the International Boxing Federation lightweight diadems, Mikey Garcia expressed his intention to jump to the welterweight division. The WBC 135-pound champion, who beat Robert Easter Jr. in a 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday for the latter?s IBF crown, has, in fact, called on Errol Spence Jr. to put his 147-pound belt on the block against him. "I'm here for the biggest challenges," Garcia, who improved to 39-0, 30 KOs, exclaimed after his win. "I don't know if there is anyone that is a bigger challenge than Errol Spence. I know he's up to fight everyone, so let?s make it happen." Spence, indeed, could be the biggest challenge for Garcia, considering that he?s a welterweight who could easily fight at middleweight. Garcia started his career as a featherweight and has fought as high as 140 pounds. He would clearly be the smaller fighter in that matchup with Spence. The big question, however, is whether he can deal with Spence's power, not to mention that Spence is recognized as the future of boxing with a unique combination of size, speed, power and technical prowess. None of that matters to Garcia though, who has fought most of his career as the favorite and, therefore, is interested in seeing what it looks like being an underdog. ?I feel I have the power and the skill set to compete in any division up to welterweight," Garcia said. "He's the toughest guy at welterweight, so I want to face him." Spence has a lot of business to handle at welterweight; however, with Danny Garcia facing Shawn Porter in September for the WBC title that Keith Thurman vacated because of injury, Terence Crawford fighting on a rival network and promotion, and the fact that nobody knows when Thurman will be ready to fight, Spence is in a no-man's land of sorts. For that reason, Spence is certainly interested in the prospect of facing a fellow pound-for-pound fighter. "I want that fight," Spence, for his part, declared during the Showtime broadcast. "I feel like that's the best fight available for me right now with Shawn and Danny fighting in September. Keith Thurman is still recovering and needs a tune-up." The size difference doesn't bother Spence, either. "He's daring to be great," Spence continued. "He wants to be great. He wants to move up and dethrone me and it's not going to happen." Spence also said that Garcia would be an "easy fight" but did compliment Garcia's ability. Ultimately, Spence figures, his size would be too much if and when the two step into the ring. "I don't really see anything that concerns me," he said. "He's technically good, but I don't see him hurting me at 147." With both fighters targeting a December date, it appears as though the boxing world will get a huge showdown between two of the sport's best. The 30-year-old Garcia improved to a perfect 39-0 with the victory on Saturday. Spence, who is the current IBF welterweight champ and is two years Garcia?s junior, is himself a perfect 24-0. He also just knocked out Carlos Ocampo in the first round during his last fight in June. While Garcia would have to move up in weight in order to fight Spence, it would certainly be a crowd-pleasing bout between two of the sport?s brightest up-and-coming stars. Not to mention two fighters? penchant to entertain the fans. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.  |
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