Not long after Manny Pacquiao pummeled Brandon Rios on Nov. 23 in Macau, China, Bob Arum mentioned Mikey Garcia, one of Rios’ stablemates and close friends, as a potential Pacquiao opponent.
The promoter’s proposition incited Arum’s army of detractors, who’ve criticized him for feeding fighters from lower weight classes to the Filipino superstar ? as long as those foes are represented by Arum’s Top Rank Inc. Rios had never competed at welterweight before opposing Pacquiao in their 12-round, 147-pound fight and Garcia is the WBO’s 130-pound champion, three weight classes below Pacquiao.
If a Pacquiao-Garcia fight happens, Garcia indicated on a conference call Tuesday that he’ll take a very patient approach toward readying his body for such a challenge.
Garcia (33-0, 28 KOs), an emerging star from Oxnard, Calif., is scheduled to defend his super-featherweight championship against Mexico’s Juan Carlos Burgos (30-1-2, 20 KOs) on Jan. 25 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden. If he beats Burgos in their HBO main event, Garcia would consider title unification fights at 130 pounds and at least one fight at lightweight (135 pounds) prior to moving up to 140. That’s a weight Pacquiao still can make.
“Those are the options and plans they have for us,” Garcia, 26, said. “Hopefully everything goes well next week and we can move forward with those plans. But I’ve got to make sure I’m comfortable.
“I’d really like to unify the titles at 130 before moving up. But if the options are better at 135, then I’ll jump up to 135 and look for a title there. Then there’s a possibility I’ll move up to 140, if the right fights are there.” Pacquiao (55-5-2, 38 KOs) is considering boxing Timothy Bradley (31-0, 12 KOs, 1 NC) in a rematch or rugged Russian Ruslan Provodnikov (23-2, 16 KOs) on April 12 in Las Vegas. But if a fight against Garcia materializes sometime in 2015, there will be plenty of story lines.
Garcia’s older brother, Robert, trains Garcia and Rios and is involved in a highly publicized feud with Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s trainer. Garcia also employs Alex Ariza, the controversial strength and conditioning coach Pacquiao fired last year and another Roach rival.
“[Garcia] indicated to various people,” Arum said, “that down the road he would look forward to a battle with Manny Pacquiao.”
Maybe just further down the road than many initially thought.
