Mikey Garcia - The Only Way Is Up

By Damien McKinley.

There is a lot of fighters out in the boxing landscape at the minute who have a lot going for them. Hype, money, talent, fanbases etc, but the majority of them come under the most intense scrutiny. It seems however that Mikey Garcia is one of the few who has avoided this nit picking so far in his successful professional career. From looking at various social media sites and sports forums, Garica does not seem to be either over or under rated. Most boxing fans seem aware of what he has and it is well respected.

As talented amateur from the age of 14, Garcia picked up gold medal honours in various tournaments but most importantly he holds a win over current number one Light Welterweight Danny “Swift” Garcia. Whether this ever gets followed up in the paid ranks is another thing though as both fighters are under rival promoters (GoldenBoy & Top Rank) who seem happy to distance their boxers from one another.

Garcia is currently 34-0 with 28 knockouts to his name and is a two weight world champion (Featherweight & Super Featherweight).

His most recent outing was against tough Mexican, Juan Carlos Burgos on January 25th and it can be argued that it slipped the Garcia juggernaut into a lower gear. After three stand out wins against Orlando Salido, Juan Manuel Lopez and Rocky Martinez, it was back to basics for Garcia. Having to use his superior skillset to bank rounds against Burgos, who proved to be a lot more awkward that many had envisaged.

Apart from a mini crisis in the second round when Garcia took some unexpected and unnecessary shots it has to be said that after that he put on a clinic. Using his footwork to find his range he couldn't miss with his left jab and straight right hand. Every round that followed the second was repeated with Garcia using his brain and timing to full affect.

To be honest, it was probably the best thing that could have happened to Mikey as his last fights have been relatively short due to his opponents not being able to withstand his arsenal. But bagging twelve rounds here will no doubt bring him down again from the hype that he can literally just blow out anybody he fights.

There have been reports coming through that his next opponent will be none other than unbeaten Cuban Yuriorkis Gamboa in a fight that will have boxing fans watering at the mouth. This bout is believed to be for the WBA Interim Title at Lightweight.

Personally my fingers are crossed to the point that they are turning purple in the hope that nothing derails these negotiations. Gamboa, one of the most talented fighters in the world will finally face off again against a top opponent. It seems to the boxing world that his career is slowly drifting to the wayside after lengthy spells of inactivity and fights on undercards. This being said as only a couple of years ago many had Gamboa ranked in the top ten of their P4P lists.

So how do I see it:

Well one thing is for sure, Mikey and his team better keep the Pacquiao talk to an absolute minimal because to me this fight could “banana skin” written all over it. Gamboa boasts a career of winning an Olympic Gold Medal as an amateur plus he is also a former unified Featherweight world champion. He is no doubt a top level fighter and one who could maybe ask Garcia a hell of a lot of questions that he is yet to face. When watching Gamboa, it looks at times as if he can switch off to costly effect. In his fight against Michael Farenas in 2012, Gamboa began to show boat throughout the fight, dropping Farenas twice along the way. But in the ninth round this came back to bite the Cuban after Farenas caught Gamboa the counter and dropped him. Unsurprisingly, the show boating stopped after the ninth round. Mikey should have success on that basis but I doubt Gamboa would be silly enough to show boat against a fighter of Garcia's stature. Gamboa has 16 knockouts in 23 straight wins so he can certainly do damage with his shots. Considering how Martinez put Garcia down, I can only imagine that Gamboa would have him in a lot more trouble.

Seeing Garcia in fights previous such as Martinez & Burgos, it shows just how disciplined he is when it comes to adapting when things don't quite go to plan.

I think the fight will go the full distance with Garcia taking a close decision but with a lot of trouble along the way. For Gamboa this will be his fourth fight in nearly three years whereas for Garcia, it will be his ninth.

So with Garcia moving his way up the weights in search of a fight against Pacquiao it is a very bold move and to be commended. Lets remember that when other fighters have the chance to cash in on a massive fight they can sometimes seem reluctant to blow the opportunity by having warm up fights against lesser opposition, but here we potentially have a massive 50/50 fight to look forward too.

http://v2journal.com/16/post/2014/02/mikey-garcia-the-only-way-is-up.html

"Only WAY is up" haha

Boxing's biggest secret..Needs the Mcguigan that Nelson his Boxing soulmate never got...

Nowhere near as hard a fight as the article makes out, Gamboa is 32, had massive periods of inactivity and in the recent times where he has actually fought he has looked mediocre against mediocre opposition, Garcia to win surprisingly easily against probably the biggest waste of talent since say Camacho