A champ vs. champ showdown between Mikey Garcia and Errol Spence Jr is being negotiated for February in Texas.
Two of boxing’s biggest fights to be made would be IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr (24-0, 21 KOs) against WBO titlist Terence Crawford (34-0, 25 KOs), as well as WBC/IBF lightweight champion Mikey Garcia (39-0, 30 KOs) against WBA champion Vasyl Lomachenko (11-1, 9 KOs). Instead, it looks as if the fight we will get is Garcia against Spence.
Ring Magazine reports that Garcia is planning to go through with his desire to jump from 135 lbs to 147 lbs to challenge Spence, as opposed to taking on IBF mandatory challenger Richard Commey (27-2, 24 KOs). This would be an opportunity for Garcia to win a world title in his fifth weight class, having won his first major one at featherweight (126 lbs). After the 30-year-old defeated Robert Easter Jr in July to unify two of the four major lightweight titles, he called for a showdown with Spence, who had mutual interest despite acknowledging the size advantage he’d have.
Spence hasn’t fought since demolishing overmatched mandatory challenger Carlos Ocampo with a first-round body shot KO in June. His previous bout in January was a corner stoppage TKO vs. Lamont Peterson, who took a prolonged beating before Peterson’s trainer stopped the fight. At worst, Spence is considered the second-best welterweight behind Keith Thurman, but Thurman has been inactive for nearly two years, so Spence has essentially taken that honor.
Garcia has never fought at welterweight before, but did beat Sergey Lipinets in an entertaining unanimous decision in March to win the IBF junior welterweight (140 lbs) belt. Both of his victories over Lipinets and Easter saw him score knockdowns. Mikey has been courted by many promoters for a long-term contract, including Matchroom Boxing’s Eddie Hearn and UFC president Dana White. It appears as if Garcia will remain unattached to a single promoter, although he’ll keep fighting under the Premier Boxing Champions banner. He’ll undoubtedly be an underdog against Spence, but his status as a top P4P fighter would soar if he were to hand Spence his first defeat.
Recent attempts to go directly up two weight classes and win a world title have gone poorly. Welterweight Kell Brook was stopped by his corner when he took on Gennady Golovkin in 2016, Amir Khan did a 155 lbs catchweight to fight middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez and was wiped out in the same year, Guillermo Rigondeaux hopped from junior featherweight (122 lbs) to challenge Vasyl Lomachenko at 130 lbs and wound up quitting on his stool last December.
Spence vs. Garcia would take place on either February 16th or 23rd in Texas, and be broadcast on Showtime PPV, marking the PPV headlining debut for both men.