Errol Spence Jr. ended Mikey Garcia's undefeated run and hopes of a winning a title in a fifth weight class with a virtuoso performance.
In front of a crowd of 47,525 in Arlington, Texas, Spence defeated Garcia by unanimous decision (120-107, 120-108, 120-108) to retain the IBF welterweight title. The fight headlined a PBC card at AT&T Stadium that was shown on pay-per-view in the United States.
The fight started off somewhat slow with both men feeling each other out and finding their range. Garcia had a brief moment where he seemed to have found a way to split Spence's guard with short-range combinations late in the second round, but after that, Spence started to let his hands go, landing power shots left and right.
As the fight progressed, Garcia was not able to find a way to overcome the massive size difference between the two. Spence kept attacking and bruising Garcia's face, forcing Garcia to defend at various times in the fight and unable to win a single round in the judges' eyes.
Garcia was getting outclassed by Spence to the point where his trainer and brother Robert Garcia threatened to stop the fight if Mikey did not produce a good 10th round. In response, Mikey started to work more and even landed a solid left hook, but even that was unable to even knock Spence off-balance. That was enough for Mikey to fight the last two rounds, but found himself unable to close the ever-growing lead on the scorecards.
This was Spence's third title defense since traveling to the United Kingdom and dethroning Kell Brook to win the IBF title back in 2017. This was the first time both Spence and Garcia had headlined a pay-per-view broadcast in the United States and it was PBC's third such event in the past four-and-a-half months. The winner of the fight would be the focus of several of the other welterweight champions that also fight under the PBC umbrella, hoping to get another massive fight for later this year.
During fight week and during the broadcast of the main card, WBC champion Shawn Porter and WBA "Regular" titleholder Manny Pacquiao had publicly declared their intent on fighting the winner of Spence vs. Garcia next. Given how neither of those champions have mandatory challenger obligations to fulfill, the door is open for those titleholders to unify later this year. But it was Pacquiao whom Spence called out after the fight, hoping to fight the future Hall of Famer next. Pacquiao said he would be open to doing the fight at AT&T Stadium when asked about it.
Garcia's perfect record came to an end, now sporting a 39-1 record. Garcia is still the WBC lightweight champion and already has a mandatory challenger in Luke Campbell, who most recently fought on March 15, waiting in the wings. Whether or not that fight takes place next remains to be seen, but it appears that Garcia's brief time as a welterweight has come to an end.
