DALLAS – Once considered a model young professional, the quintessence of what a proper boxing pedigree could produce, California featherweight Miguel Angel “Mikey” Garcia appeared to be another thing entirely at the weigh-in for his Saturday fight with Puerto Rican Juan Manuel “Juanma” Lopez. Garcia lost his world title on the scale, the least-professional place to lose it.
At American Airlines Center Friday, Garcia (31-0, 26 KOs) weighed 128 pounds, two in excess of the featherweight limit, while Lopez (33-2, 30 KOs), about whose weight concerns were openly expressed in previous weeks, made 125 1/4.
A drawn Mikey Garcia took the stage first, and when he raised his hands above his head, like a famished swimmer about to dive in a pool, he did not look well. The number got read by announcer Lupe “El Más Macho” Contreras, and there was no reaction among those gathered, though 128 did seem an odd number, even for a catchweight fight, which this palpably was not but rather an HBO “Boxing After Dark” main event, and the network had paid for a world-title fight. When Juan Manuel “Juanma” Lopez then marked 125 1/4, the gravity of Garcia’s miss became apparent even to those giving the formalities only partial attention.
Garcia, preceded by part of his team, though notably not his older brother and trainer Robert, and followed by Top Rank ace publicist Lee Samuels, wandered out the arena into the miserable heat of downtown Dallas in June, ostensibly to wriggle or boil two more pounds from his desiccated frame. Lopez conducted a brief interview for the promoter’s streaming-video link, and it provided the first official announcement of Garcia’s miss.
Asked about Garcia’s comments earlier in the week that the Californian was a better professional fighter than him in every way, Lopez, usually an affable type quicker to smile than glower, was uncharacteristically direct and critical.
“Maybe he is the better professional in the ring,” Lopez said, “but he is no one professional on the scale.”
The rest of the weigh-in went along, the co-main fighters – Nebraska lightweight Terence Crawford (20-0, 15 KOs) and Mexican Alejandro Sanabria (34-1-1, 25 KOs) – each made 134 1/2 pounds, and the waiting began, as what crowd had gathered gradually returned to the rest of its Friday afternoon. Forty or so minutes later, nervous Top Rank personnel gathered near the stage began to communicate with hand gestures and head shakes and whispers in promoter Bob Arum’s ear.
Twenty minutes after that, a roughdried Mikey Garcia returned to the concourse from the door he’d exited one hour before. While Top Rank’s Carl Moretti placed a reassuring arm across Garcia’s shoulders and other insiders exchanged knowing glances, Arum discussed loudly and disapprovingly a money issue of some kind on stage.
Lupe Contreras was called to the podium and then returned without making an announcement. Texas commission officials and the WBO supervisor watched as Garcia made his way to the podium, not the scale, and affixed his signature on some contractual item or other. It became apparent Garcia’s first weight, 128, would be his only weight – there would be no reweighing him – and everyone from Top Rank’s Bruce Trampler to HBO’s Peter Nelson appeared uncertain what would come next.
Arum then strode towards the staircase leading from the makeshift stage to the concourse floor, stopped at the podium and approached its microphone like an annoying obstacle between him and the staircase about which he cared thrice as much.
“Card’s going to go on,” Arum announced. “The title fight has been cancelled.”
Then negotiations began in earnest.
Garcia-Lopez will be contested after all. Garcia is no longer the WBO featherweight champion of the world, though Lopez, for making weight, will have an opportunity to claim Garcia’s now-vacant title if he wins their match. Saturday’s opening bell will ring on the American Airlines Center card at 6:00 PM local time.