It didn’t take long for Mikey Garcia, arguably the best to ever come from the fighting Garcia family, to emerge as one of the sport’s top young fighters. But it’s been quite a while since the boxing world has seen him in action.
After the Oxnard, Calif., native crushed the opposition at featherweight, he captured the WBO title by stopping Orlando Salido in the eighth. In his next fight, he flattened Juan Manuel Lopez in the fourth but because Garcia failed to make weight, the title was vacated. He then knocked out Roman Martinez in the eighth to win the vacant WBO junior lightweight strap and defended it by edging Juan Carlos Burgos over 12 rounds.
That duel with Burgos in January 204 was the last time the world saw Garcia in the ring. Garcia had been embroiled in a long legal battle with former promoter Top Rank and was forced to sit on the sidelines until it was resolved, which it was in April. Now, it seems, Garcia is ready to reclaim his position as one of the best pugilist in the world.
According to a report by RingTV.com Thursday afternoon, Garcia is planning on making his grand return on July 30 as the co-featured attraction on the Leo Santa Cruz – Carl Frampton card at Barclays Center. Showtime will televise the event.
Danny Jacobs was originally slated to face Sergio Mora as the co-featured bout that night but promoters moved it to September as a headliner in either Las Vegas or New York. There is no official word as to whom Garcia will be opposing, though that announcement is expected soon.