Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images
Former four-weight champion Mikey Garcia returns to the ring against Jessie Vargas after suffering the first loss of his pro career.
Mikey Garcia (39-1, 30 KOs), a former four-weight world champion and once considered among the best pound for pound fighters, is coming back this week end following a year off. In 2019, Garcia went up to welterweight and was shut out by Errol Spence Jr in an attempt to win a belt in a fifth weight class. He did not look like a good fit for welterweight against Spence so it’s a bit surprising that he elected to stay at the weight rather than going back down at least to super-lightweight. But he’ll be fighting Jessie Vargas (29-2-2, 11 KOs) for the WBC diamond belt.
Vargas is a former WBA super-lightweight champion but is mostly known to boxing fans for his losses to Tim Bradley and Manny Pacquiao at welterweight. He rebounded from a couple of draws against Adrien Broner and Thomas Dulorme with a TKO win over faded veteran Humberto Soto. That got him back in the win column but he didn’t look particularly great in the lead up to his win over the 39-year-old.
Vargas is a solid fighter with a decent jab that does the job to get him close and his position to use his best weapon, his body work. However, if welterweight appears to be far from Garcia’s optimal weight class, he’s still one of the most skilled fighters in the world, an excellent counter puncher with very good power, at least below welterweight.
It’s tough to see a good path to victory for Vargas here, he isn’t a big puncher and doesn’t have the size to bully Garcia to the ropes. His style makes him a prime candidate to be outboxed by Garcia and probably eat some nasty counters along the way. He hasn’t been stopped before though so I think he’ll make it to the final bell. I still have my doubts about Garcia’s future at welterweight but Vargas likely isn’t the man to confirm them.
Garcia vs Vargas airs on DAZN on Saturday February 29th at 8:00pm ET / 5:00pm PT. The undercard also features two very interesting and likely action packed title fights between Kal Yafai and Chocolatito Gonzalez for the WBA super-flyweight belt and Julio Cesar Martinez vs Jay Harris for the WBC flyweight belt. Combined with the return of Garcia, this should make for a solid night of boxing.
Main Card
Mikey Garcia vs. Jessie Vargas – WBC Diamond Welterweight Title
Kal Yafai vs. Roman Gonzalez – WBA Superflyweight Title
Julio Cesar Martinez vs. Jay Harris – WBC Flyweight Title
Joseph Parker vs. Shawndell Winters