WBO super-featherweight champion Mikey Garcia, inactive since January, is planning to move to lightweight in his next outing, he has revealed to Boxing News. Contractual disputes with promoters Top Rank have stunted his progress this year, but the unbeaten 26-year-old is hoping to fight again before 2015.
“I’m hoping we can come to a solution together [with Top Rank] that will allow me to move on with my career,” Garcia said. “My next fight will be at lightweight, or if we can’t get a major fight, maybe at catchweight. But I will definitely not be fighting at 130 again. Even in my last fight, against [Juan Carlos] Burgos, we struggled to make weight. My body is telling me it’s time to move up. Before this I was at featherweight since I was 15 years old.”
In the meantime, the Californian will be keeping busy by acting as a sparring partner to Marcos Maidana – trained by Mikey’s brother Robert Garcia – as the Argentine prepares for Floyd Mayweather.
“I’ll give him another approach to fighting Mayweather, some different angles, and I am looking forward to working with him. This is to help him, but it will keep me sharp and focused too.”
