Former four-weight world titleholder Mikey Garcia 40-1 (30) believes that undisputed junior welterweight champion Josh ‘The Tartan Tornado’ Taylor 18-0 (13) should remain in the 140-pound weight class for the time being.
The 30-year-old Scottish southpaw added the WBC and WBO belts to his WBA and IBF straps with a 12-round unanimous decision victory over previously undefeated Mexican-American Jose ‘Jaguar’ Ramirez 26-1 (17) in Las Vegas last month.
Taylor dropped the 28-year-old Ramirez twice in the middle rounds to run out the winner by scores of 114-112 across the board.
Garcia, 33, knows a thing or two about moving up in weight after winning his first world title as a featherweight and subsequently collecting hardware in the 130, 135 and 140-pound divisions.
He now competes in the welterweight division where his lone conqueror Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr 27-0 (21) is the WBC and IBF kingpin and Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford 37-0 (28) is the WBO boss.
The Californian warned Taylor against moving up too quickly, particularly when a big fight against undisputed lightweight champion Teofimo ‘The Takeover’ Lopez 16-0 (12) could be just around the corner.
Before that fight can happen, Lopez will have to deal with his Australian mandatory George ‘Ferocious’ Kambosos Jr 18-0 (10) later this month while Taylor will need to honour his own mandatory obligation to British southpaw Jack ‘El Gato’ Catterall 26-0 (13).
“I don’t know if [Taylor] can beat Terence Crawford. Crawford is the real deal also,” Garcia said to FightHype. “He’s a very talented, smart fighter, tricky. I don’t know if [Taylor] can beat him, but he’s the undisputed world champ.
“You can’t take anything away from [Taylor]. I think a better match-up would be if Teofimo was to move up to 140.
“I think that’s a much better match-up [for Taylor]. Style-wise, I think that’s a terrific match-up, and Teofimo has talked about moving up soon.
“That might be something we see before [Taylor moves up to 147 to take on Crawford]. Both are both undefeated champions in their weight classes, so it’s a toss-up.”
Taylor shot to fame by winning the World Boxing Super Series tournament in 2019 including trumping previously undefeated American southpaw Regis ‘Rougarou’ Prograis 26-1 (22) by majority decision in the final in London.
If Taylor does decide to move up in weight he will be installed as the number one contender to Crawford’s WBO title and will likely pursue that fight rather than an interim bout to acclimate to the heavier division.
But if Taylor does want a non-title fight before chasing the big dogs at 147-pounds, Garcia is more than happy to oblige.
“Hell yeah,” said Garcia, who has not fought since outpointing former WBO welterweight champion Jessie Vargas in Frisco, Texas in February last year.
“I’d take that fight, but you get into the politics of business and sometimes that prevents it from happening.
“You just got to roll with it and see what you can make out of it and that’s it.”
