Boxing fans know how good Mikey Garcia has been throughout his career. He is a three division world titleholder and coming into the fight with Adrien Broner, he was the reigning lightweight titleholder.
The casual fan got an introduction to just how good Garcia is as he moved up to junior welterweight and dominated the brash Broner. Garcia controlled the tempo and distance throughout the fight. His ability to cut off the ring frustrated Broner to the point where he chose to stand in the pocket. The judges scored the fight 117-111 and 116-112 (twice) all in favor of Garcia. Making the Cut scored the fight 116-112 for Garcia.
Coming into the fight, the question was how Garcia would deal with the bigger Broner. It was never an issue, even though, Broner had pockets of scoring effectively later in the fight. Not known for being a body puncher, Garcia continuously scored to Broner’s body in the first half of the fight. Broner continuously shook his head in defiance as he lost round after round.
Garcia’s high boxing IQ was on display all throughout the night as he showed why he should be in any “pound for pound” conversation.
“ This is definitely one of my best performances ever. I think I controlled the fight in the early rounds and I kept the activity up. [Broner] is a great fighter who has great skills, but I was the superior fighter tonight. ”
Garcia’s career took a 2.5 year detour in a legal dispute with Top Rank but that’s now that’s a distant memory. Since returning to the ring in 2016, Garcia has won all three fights.
Broner’s career is going in the opposite direction. It can easily be argued that he has lost the three biggest fights he’s been in. Marcos Maidana battered him around the ring, Shawn Porter defeated him despite being knocked down in the 12th round and Garcia dominated him in every phase of the fight. Ringside broadcasters openly questioned why it took so long for Broner to stalk Garcia. Being the bigger man, most thought Broner would be more aggressive but in typical Broner fashion, he waited for desperation to set in before going after his opponent.
Garcia was, by far, the busier fighter landing 244 out of 783 (31%) punches. Broner only threw 400 punches landing a measly 125 of them. Broner’s inactivity forces him into the position of having to land a ‘fight changing’ punch, something he wasn’t close to doing on Saturday night.
This troubling trend is why Broner is on the verge of being a “B” side fighter. But in typical Broner fashion, he tried to put a positive spin on his disappointing performance.
“At the end of the day, I’m still AB, I’m still ‘About Billions,’ I’m still the ‘can man.’ If he wants the rematch in California, we can do it. At the end of the day, I’m still a four-time world champion at four different weight classes, and I’ll still be in the history books.”
The probability of a rematch is very slim. Garcia will have his pick of opponents and will continue to get the paydays and notoriety his boxing career deserves.
“Anybody that wants to come join us on Showtime, give us a call. We are ready for anybody,” Garcia said. “Maybe I’ll go down to 135, stay at 140 or go up to 147.”
