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Mikey Garcia’s return is in the works with Al Haymon and Showtime in mind

Fighters Network
27
Apr

 

Mikey Garcia vs Juan Carlos Burgos - fukuda

Former two-division champion Mikey Garcia is starting to put together a well-defined plan for his return to the sport after being off for more than two years.

While Garcia has not signed with anyone as of yet, a strategy has emerged that will define the second-half of his career for years to come, according to his older brother and trainer, Robert Garcia.



Mikey Garcia (34-0, 28 knockouts) plans to have his comeback fight at 140 pounds, hopefully by June “because Mikey’s ready,” Garcia told RingTV.com. From there, he will drop down to 135 to pursue a title (and shake off the ring rust) before eventually reemerging at junior welterweight to challenge the stalwarts of the division, such as titleholders Terence Crawford and Viktor Postol, Garcia said.

As for partnering with a network, the trainer said he’s been in contact with Showtime boxing chief Stephen Espinoza. And Espinoza confirmed the talks and told RingTV.com he’s waiting for Garcia to select an opponent before deciding if his fight back should be on Showtime. But Garcia also didn’t rule out a possible reunion with HBO, which aired his brother’s fights before the protracted legal battle with Top Rank.

Simply put, the Garcias are weighing their options and are in discussions with most of the kingmakers of the sport — and that includes Al Haymon. Garcia called aligning with Haymon “one big possibility.” But whatever they do, they don’t want their parterships to restrict them from making the biggest fights possible.

“I don’t think Mikey wants to sign with any promoter,” Garcia told RingTV.com on Wednesday. “I think what Mikey wants to do is maybe to be open with everybody because we know HBO could also be interested and there are some big fights out there. There’s the winner of Terence Crawford and Viktor Postol. Then there are so many great fighters fighting for PBC that could also make sense. Golden Boy always has a lot of names around 135, 140 and eventually 147. Whatever makes the most sense.”

After the drama involving Top Rank, Mikey Garcia, who won titles at featherweight and junior lightweight, doesn’t want to rush back into the sport without a solid plan, his brother said. Garcia last fought in Jan. of 2014 when he won a wide decision against Juan Carlos Burgos at Madison Square Garden.

“We’re taking our time,” Garcia said. “After everything was resolved with Top Rank, Mikey told me and my dad, ‘I don’t want to rush it. I want to make sure I make the right decision because I don’t want to wind up back in the position I was and just lose two years of my career. I’m 28. I still have another 5,7,8, 10 years if I want.'”

Garcia said he ran into Espinoza at Leo Santa Cruz’s fight with Kiko Martinez on Feb. 27 at the Honda Center in Anaheim and later spoke to him on the phone about his brother’s return.

“He called me up and said, ‘Robert, after everything is resolved with Mikey, please keep us in mind,'” Garcia said of their talk. “‘I would like to do something big with Mikey.’ So we know that’s somewhere where we already have our doors open.” Espinoza confirmed that he’s been in talks with the Garcia camp and he is interested in bringing him to the network.

“I’ve expressed my interest,” Espinoza told RingTV.com. “If it’s the caliber of opponent that merits a Showtime fight, we’d love to have him. But I also wouldn’t begrudge him taking a midlevel fight after being off for two years. They’re evaluating opponents and I think they’re going to come back to me when they’ve figured out strategically where they want to go.”

Garcia said he was also open to working with Haymon, given his large stable of fighters. However, nothing has been finalized, he stressed. “That’s one big possibility because of all the fighters that work with Al Haymon,” he said, “and all the fights that can be made on Showtime and eventually one day hopefully PPV.”

Garcia says he’s been inundated with calls from promoters, stateside and overseas. The sheer volume of calls has surprised him. While flattering, Garcia wants to make sure his brother is able to leverage his situation so he’s open to fight the best and isn’t constrained by the various fractious promotional relationships.

“Everyone is telling me he’s going to be the next Mexican-American superstar,” Garcia said. “So if things go like that, we want to keep our options open because even if we do work with someone like Haymon and go in that direction, we still want to do a big pay-per-view with a Terence Crawford because they have solid fighters. Felix Verdejo- those are all fighters who could be available, three, four, five years from now. So we want to keep those options open.”

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