By Norm Frauenheim-
Mikey Garcia’s pursuit of Errol Spence Jr. in a daunting, two-division jump from lightweight to welter is a welcome counter to Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s business model.
Mayweather mastered risk-to-reward like the ratio was a shoulder roll. He made it look easy. TBE, The Biggest Earner, got the most money out of the smallest risk in history. Mayweather did it so well that now there’s a whole generation of fighters who think they can pull it off, too.
They can’t, of course, no more so than the last generation could fight with the hands -down ring style that made Roy Jones Jr. so unique. The model generated unprecedented millions for Mayweather. But I’m not sure it did much for anybody else in a business defined by risk.
Nearly a year after Mayweather seemingly exhausted the business model with a pay-for-predictable show against MMA star and novice boxer Conor McGregor, Garcia comes along and puts some risk back into a game that lost it in the pursuit of easy money for over-the-top spectacle.
He’s willing to take a chance. Imagine that. Sadly, that’s news in boxing these days.
But Garcia, a promotional free agent since his split with Top Rank, has shown evident independence in a career that he seems determined to shape in his own way. After he re-affirmed his decision to face Spence in his next fight following his one-sided decision over Robert Easter Jr. last Saturday at Los Angeles’ Staples Center for a second piece of the lightweight title, there was skepticism.
Sure, said some the critics, who argued that Garcia has nothing to lose. If Spence wins, he could simply say he lost to a bigger man. True enough, but somehow that argument misses the point. If Spence, a big welterweight, is everything he is supposed to be, the unbeaten Garcia is risking more than his first loss. He’s risking his physical well-being. Life and limb. That’s the real chance here and people will watch because of it.
The guess in this corner is that Garcia has all of the tactical skill and smarts to avoid punches that leave long-term damage. But there’s always a chance that one will land. In part, that’s why people watched Mayweather. They hoped that one punch, unseen and unexpected, would land and shut him up. It never did, of course.
That possibility will be there for Garcia, ever present and more dangerous than it ever was for Mayweather. In effect, Garcia, who started his career at featherweight, is willing to do what Mayweather never was. He’s stepping up, saying he wants to fight one of the most feared fighters of the day. Throughout his welterweight reign, nobody ever heard Mayweather say he was willing to fight middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin.
There’s been plenty of talk that Garcia would – should — exercise the risk-to-reward ratio more effectively against a lighter fighter. For the last couple of years, there was speculation about Garcia versus Vasiliy Lomachenko at either 135 pounds or 140. But lingering issues between Garcia and Top Rank, which promotes Lomachenko, could prevent that one. Besides, Lomachenko is coming off shoulder surgery and probably will work his way through a comeback later this year, perhaps December. Garcia and Spence hope to fight in November.
The other idea was Pacquiao at 140. Garcia family patriarch Eduardo told Mikey’s brother and trainer Robert that they should go after Pacquiao after the aging Filipino’s stoppage of a shot Lucas Matthysse a few weeks ago. A fight against Pacquiao makes sense, fiscally and physically, for Garcia. The Pacquiao name is still a draw.
But Robert said no his father. Robert seemed to know that Mikey understood that a victory over Pacquiao would just be criticized as a win over a legend who is faded is every way but his name.
There would be no risk in that. No legacy as a reward, either.
