Leo Santa Cruz took a close one in Las Vegas.
Carl Frampton earned a featherweight trilogy, perhaps on his home turf.
But neither main-eventer was the biggest winner at the MGM Grand in late January.
Instead, that honor goes to Mikey Garcia, who ? while fighting for just the second time in three years ? reintroduced himself to a crowd that might have forgotten just how good he?d been.
The 29-year-old Californian separated Dejan Zlaticanin from his senses on the Santa Cruz-Frampton undercard with a right hand that?ll be replayed when ?KO of the Year? time comes later this year. The fight-ender shot also yielded the Montenegrin?s WBC title at 135 pounds, meaning Garcia is the latest to gain entry to a ?champion at three weights? fraternity whose ranks have swelled to several dozen.
He?d been the WBO?s champ at 126 and 130 pounds prior to the sojourn, prompted by myriad injuries and promotional hang-ups, and had begun to creep onto pound-for-pound lists by the time he defended the junior lightweight strap for the last time against Juan Carlos Burgos (UD 12) in midtown Manhattan in January 2014.
Only one fight ? a fifth-round stoppage of outgunned Elio Rojas in Brooklyn last July — preceded the weekend return against Zlaticanin, but the ferocity with which the previously unbeaten European was dispatched warranted an immediate spike for Garcia across several fighter-rating platforms.
?Mikey reaffirmed himself as a top-five pound-for-pound guy,? veteran matchmaker/businessman Rick Glaser told BoxingScene.com. ?For sure.?
Indeed, he went from unranked to No. 2 at lightweight in the Independent World Boxing Rankings, and was immediately installed as the No. 1 contender to champion Jorge Linares on a list compiled by Ring Magazine.
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Springs Toledo, a founding member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, said the win propelled Garcia from an unranked standing at lightweight to No. 1 in the group?s updated assessment. He also re-entered the pound-for-pound rankings at No. 10, replacing Frampton and sliding in one spot behind Santa Cruz, and it?s only the TBRB?s longer-view approach that kept him from a better slot.
?Some members argued that Garcia deserved to enter in at No. 9 over Santa Cruz,? Toledo told BoxingScene.com. ?Does Garcia look like the world-beater I thought he was becoming before the lamentable stretch of no fights? Yes. But our P4P list emphasizes recent record more than the eye-test and I tend to agree with that approach. If I went with (HBO announcer Jim) Lampley’s approach ? ?who is the toughest to beat right now? ? he’d be top-five P4P, certainly.?
Regardless of where he?s perched, the win gives Garcia an enviable view of the imminent goings-on at lightweight, where IBF champ Robert Easter Jr., WBA champ Linares and WBO champ Terry Flanagan all have fights scheduled between now and the first half of April.
The Independent World Boxing Rankings have Linares No. 1 at 135, while Easter in fourth and Flanagan sixth. Zlaticanin remains third and Petr Petrov, whom Flanagan will meet on April 8, is fifth.
?I do (believe Garcia reestablished himself as a pound-for-pounder),? Lem Satterfield, senior writer at Premier Boxing Champions, told BoxingScene.com. ?I think it was the perfect fuse given that Easter fights this month, Linares next month and Flanagan after that.?
Garcia now views the extended layoff as a positive, suggesting it helped him rediscover his love for a sport in which he?s been a professional since age 18.
And given the flurry of activity in the weight class, he?s hoping for an immediate marquee match at lightweight or elsewhere.
Other tantalizing possibilities lie within a division in either direction, including current 130-pound king Vasyl Lomachenko, top 140-pound dog Terence Crawford and the ever-present superstar specter of Manny Pacquiao.
?I was always in shape,? Garcia said. ?The layoff allowed me to reignite that fire, that passion. I?m available for any of the other champions. If we can get the organizations to unify the lightweight division. Then maybe we can go to 140 and do the same thing.?
