Bradley: Mikey Garcia will give Vasyl Lomachenko a lot of problems

Former champion Timothy Bradley Jr. gives his assessment on Vasyl Lomachenko’s stoppage win over Jorge Linares this past weekend and what challenges he sees for Lomachenko going forward.

“It was a great performance by both guys. I thought Linares handled himself, behaved like a champion, fought back, knocked down the maxtrix — or Loma — put on a great show. You know [Linares] showed me something tonight. He showed me that there is vulnerability in Lomachenko’s craft. There is! There’s spots. There’s spots you can take advantage of.

“You know, he’s the bigger guy. He stayed there, he exchanged with him in spots, caught him coming in with shots, he timed him with shots. Loma, little small arms. Little arms…[he] gotta get close to you. You know, he hangs around that mid-distance range a lot of the times. So, you have your opportunities to hit him and he likes to press on the gas an be in front of you all the time, then get to the side of you. Sometimes he makes mistakes, sometimes he comes back to the middle, sometimes he sits right there a little bit too long. Guess what? So you do have opportunities.

“So if he’s gonna move up or maybe even fight some of the other champions…Mikey Garcia! A guy like Mikey Garcia. Mikey — great timing, great punching power, experience, IQ, knows how to handle himself very well in the fight. I think he’ll give Lomachenko a lot of problems. He could. He can give him a lot of problems due to the fact that he has the ability to fight on the inside or fight at that mid-distance range and he’s smart enough to know, you know, what not to do in those situations.

“I mean Loma will prevail in certain areas, he’ll have his spots, but it’s still a dangerous fight for Loma, and I would love to see a match-up with him and Mikey Garcia…”