For weeks, Mikey Garcia has expressed a desire to not only move up two weight classes to welterweight and win another world title, but also face arguably the toughest welterweight today in Errol Spence Jr.
Before the thought of Garcia facing Spence could really be entertained, Garcia had to fight IBF lightweight champion Robert Easter Jr. Garcia was successful in doing so on July 28 in Los Angeles, beating Easter by unanimous decision to unify the IBF and WBC titles.
Now that that's out of the way, Garcia doubled down on his intentions on fighting Spence later this year in a post-fight interview with Showtime. The boxing world knew of Garcia's desire to have the dream fight, but what say Spence on such a fight?
Spence was present at the Staples Center when Garcia beat Easter. During the broadcast, Spence was interviewed by Showtime and when asked if he wants to fight the four-division champion, Spence said he wants Garcia, calling him the best fight available to him right now and echoing Garcia's sentiment that Spence represents the best possible challenge to him today.
?Definitely I want that fight. He?s daring to be great. He wants to be great. He wants to move up and dethrone me and it?s not going to happen. It?s definitely going to be an easy fight. He will be pound-for-pound No. 1 if he beats me, but it?s not going to happen. He has great skills, but I see myself winning. I don?t really see anything that concerns me. He?s technically good, but I don?t see him hurting me at 147,? Spence said.
Spence's ultimate goal is to unify the welterweight division, which means having to go through WBA "super" welterweight champion Keith Thurman as well as the winner of the Danny Garcia vs. Shawn Porter fight for the vacant WBC welterweight title. But with Thurman recovering from injury and in no rush to fight the welterweight's elite, Garcia vs. Porter taking place in September and Spence already taking care of his mandatory challenger in his last fight, Spence does have free reign over his future as far as his next fight is concerned.
The IBF welterweight champion has won all three of his title fights by knockout, including former champions Kell Brook and Lamont Peterson. But none of them possess Garcia's resume, who is one of only 17 men to win a major world title in four different weight classes, and a fight between the two would create a similar level of buzz in boxing to when Guillermo Rigondeaux moved up two weight classes to fight Vasiliy Lomachenko last year. Rigondeaux was unsuccessful as he easily dispatched by the bigger Lomachenko at Madison Square Garden.
Although a fight between Spence and Garcia wasn't announced on July 28, both sides appear very interested and willing to have their fight take place later this year, perhaps as early as November.