By Radio Rahim
On February 10th, undefeated three-division world champion Mikey Garcia (37-0, 30 KOs) will attempt to win a world title in a fourth weight class when he challenges unbeaten IBF 140-pound world champion Sergey Lipinets (13-0, 10 KOs) at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Garcia, who still holds the WBC lightweight titles, has also captured belts at featherweight and super featherweight.
This will be his second bout at 140-pounds, after dominating four division world champion Adrien Broner back in July at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
A few months ago, headlines erupted when Garcia said he was willing to move up to the junior middleweight limit of 154-pounds to fight WBO champion Miguel Cotto, who staged a retirement bout earlier this month at New York's Madison Square Garden.
There were actual negotiations, but Garcia claimed the contest was a no-go because Cotto's promoter, Golden Boy Promotions, had requested future fight options as part of the bout agreement.
Garcia's loss was Sadam Ali's gain.
Ali, a United States Olympian, was competing as a welterweight and entered that fight as a huge underdog.
In a big upset, Ali outboxed Cotto over twelve rounds to secure a unanimous decision victory. During the course of the contest, Ali was able to hurt Cotto in several rounds.
After watching how that contest played out, Mikey's older brother and head trainer, Robert Garcia, believes they would have knocked the Puerto Rican superstar out.
"If everything goes well [with Lipinets, Mikey fighting] at 135 or 140 I have no problem. Anything higher than that, I would be a little more concerned and a little more nervous," Robert Garcia told BoxingScene.com.
"When Mikey called out Cotto, I was like 'are you crazy Mikey? What's your problem?' But then when I was thinking about it and seeing that Mikey was so serious about it, I supported him. And I think if he would have fought him, I think Mikey would have stopped Cotto. I really think so. Mikey would have done that, come back down and that's something that very few fighters have accomplished.
"But he didn't do it, so we're looking at the fight with Lipinets. It's a big challenge for a fourth world title in a fourth division."
2023-10-20 05:37:50
