Lightweight world champion Mikey Garcia (38-0, 30 KOs) is reportedly close to signing with Dana White and his new Zuffa Boxing promotions, according to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports News. White is the president of the UFC. He’s branching into boxing to expand into another realm.
If Dana gives Mikey a big signing bonus, that would make it hard for him to resist. Mikey was out of boxing for 2 ½ years due to promotional issues in the past. Hopefully, we don’t see Mikey having the same problems if he’s not happy with Dana.
Mikey, 30, might be taking a risk with his career if he signs with White. It’ll depend on whether White can work with the established powerhouse boxing promoters in the U.S Bob Arum of Top Rank and Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions.
If White can’t work with those guys, then Mikey is going to be limited with what he can do with his career. Mikey is expected to fight IBF lightweight champion Robert Easter Jr. next in the summer, and then go after the winner of the May 12th fight between WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares and former two division world champion Vasyl Lomachenko. Hopefully, White can work with Golden Boy or Top Rank to match Mikey against whoever emerges as the winner of the Linares vs. Lomachenko fight.
”Just spoke with Dana White and he said he’s closing in on a deal with Mikey Garcia. He said plans for Zuffa Boxing are moving forward,” Kevin Iole said on his social media.
Mikey previously was promoted by Top Rank. He could have signed with Golden Boy Promotions after he left Top Rank, but he decided not to. Mikey has been fighting in New York, Las Vegas and Texas in the las five years. Mikey should have been fighting in Southern California where middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin fights. If Dana White can start staging Mikey’s fights in the LA area, he could bring in large audiences and become a fan favorite depending on if he continues to fight success.
Mikey does some really some crazy things at times with his career. This would be up his ballpark. One of the odd things Mikey did recently was choose not to fight Linares when he had the chance to this year, and instead move up to light welterweight to challenge IBF 140 lb. champion Sergey Lipinets. That was an ego move by Mikey in going after a weak champion at 140 in order to win a 4th division world title.
Mikey wanted the status as a 4 division world champion, and he picked out arguably the weakest of the champions at light welterweight to pick up that belt. But as soon as Mikey moved up to 140, Lomachenko and Top Rank moved in and signed a fight against Linares. Mikey immediately started complaining after learning the news of Linares fighting to fight Lomachenko. Mikey felt that Linares should have waited for him to come back down to 135 so they could fight.
It would be disappointing if Mikey signs with White, and then ends up never fighting any of the big names in the sport ever again. That might be a good thing for Mikey, because he probably will lose to Lomachenko.
Mikey has had a lot of wins over less than stellar opposition in the last 5 years of his career. These are the fighters that Mikey has been beating since 2013:
• Juan Manuel Lopez – past his prime
• Adrien Broner – past his prime
• Dejan Zlaticanin – 5’4”
• Elio Rojas – past his prime
• Sergey Lipinets – arguably the weakest of the light welterweight champions at the time Mikey fought him
• Juan Carlos Burgos
• Roman Martinez
I hate to say it but Mikey has turned into something of a cherry picker in the last five years of his career. The one tough fight he had was against Orlando Salido, and he appeared to quit after he suffered a nose injury. Some boxing fans think Mikey quit because Salido was taking over the fight. It’s sad that Mikey’s only tough fight was against Salido, and he bowed out after the 8th.
The fighters that Mikey should have been fighting in the last 5 years are these guys:
• Regis Prograis
• Miguel Berchelt
• Vasyl Lomachenko
• Jose Ramirez
• Gervonta Davis
• Yvan Mendy
• Jorge Linares
• Luke Campbell
• Robert Easter Jr.
• Josh Taylor
• Viktor Postol
• Terence Crawford