Broner: Mikey Garcia is drunk talking KO

Boxingnews24.com

By Chris Williams: Adrien “The Problem” Broner laughs at the bold knockout talk coming from Mikey Garcia about their fight on Saturday night. Broner (33-2, 24 KOs) says the 29-year-old Garcia is drunk if he honestly believes he’s going to score a knockout over him when the two meet up at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Garcia is saying he’d be happy to win the fight by a decision. He wants to box Broner, which is a bad sign for the boxing fans that will be tuning in to watch the fight on Showtime Boxing. If Garcia decides use movement for long spells like he did against Orlando Salido, the fight could turn into a cat and mouse affair with Broner forced to chase Mikey for 12 rounds.

Hopefully, Mikey understands that for him to take his career to the next level by beating Broner, he must do it by fighting in an exciting style and not stinking up the joint.

“I hear it’s now almost even,” said Broner to Fighthype about the odds for the Broner-Garcia fight. “On Saturday night, Vegas will be out of a lot of money. I don’t know if he promised a knockout or not. He’s drunk. On Saturday night, I’ll be victorious.”

Garcia will try for the knockout, but if it’s not happening, he’s going to look to box Broner to win a decision. It’s that simple. Garcia isn’t going to take unnecessary risks. He already has a built in excuse if the fight goes the distance by the fact that he’s moving up in weight 5 pounds from the lightweight division.

The weight for the Broner-Garcia fight is 140. That’s not that much more than what Garcia is currently fighting at in the 135 lb. division. If he can’t knockout Broner, then it suggests that he doesn’t have power that carries up to the light welterweight division. But hopefully the fight will be interesting to watch. One problem is a lot of boxing fans expect this to be a slugging match. if it turns out to be anything other than that, then the fans are going to be disappointed with the outcome.

Garcia’s brother/trainer Robert Garcia points out that his former fighter Marcos Maidana easily beat Broner 4 years ago in knocking him down twice. However, Maidana was a big fighter that rehydrated to 165 lbs. on the night of the fight. That was the second fight Broner took at welterweight after moving up to 147 six months earlier in defeating WBA World champion Paulie Malignaggi.

The weight advantage that Maidana had over Broner was huge. If Mikey made the same move that Broner did in moving up to 147 and then fighting a guy that outweighed him by 20 pounds in Maidana, Mikey would have had some problems. Maidana was so huge in that fight.

“Maidana beat him pretty easy,” said Mikey’s trainer Robert Garcia to Fightub in remembering Broner’s loss to Maidana in 2013. “Once Mikey hurts a guy, he’s going for the kill. Maidana hurt him pretty bad in the 2nd round. Broner got up and his legs were shaking. And then he got dropped again later in the fight. He was still strong enough to finish the fight really strong. If he gets dropped, I don’t want Mikey to gas out. Mikey is very smart inside the ring. He’s not going to make those mistakes,” said Robert.

Garcia will probably be willing to empty his gas tank if he hurts Broner with one of his shots. Mikey doesn’t throw a lot of punches though. He tends to look for one big shot. If he does that against Broner, then he’ll let him off the hook, because Broner is good a recovering quickly. If Mikey wants to get a knockout in this fight, there will need to be some energy expenditure on his part. He’s not going to get a knockout just looking for one big shot. That works against small 5’4” guys like Dejan Zlaticanin, but it’s going to be a different story with Mikey fighting the bigger 5’7’” Broner. Mikey will need to open up with more punches if he wants to get a knockout in this fight.

“We have to be very careful. Mikey’s skills and power is good enough to beat Broner,”said Robert Garcia. ”He does have a great game plan, and he can’t make mistakes. Mikey has to fight the perfect fight. Mikey has to fight smart. With Broner, you can think he’s done. He’s got energy, he’s got power, even in the later rounds. We have to fight the perfect fight. If we do that, then I think Mikey is going to be spectacular. Mikey is going to have a fight with the boxing world will say, ‘Wow.’”

This is going to be a different fight for Mikey compared to any of the guys he’s fought before. You have to realize that if Broner was matched against Mikey’s resume of fighters, he’d likely beat everyone of them without any problems. Broner’s record might even be better than Mikey’s 36-0, 30 knockouts.

Broner would be capable of knocking out almost everyone Mikey’s fought with the exception of Orlando Salido, who can take a good punch. Mikey is going to be in the ring on Saturday night with a guy that might actually be as good as him if not better. That’s something that Garcia will need to understand and not lose his cool if he’s unable to bowl Broner over like he’s done with most of the guys he’s faced during his career.

Mikey needs to understand that his perfect resume is manufactured to a certain extent. Mikey didn’t fight Vasyl Lomachenko, Gary Russell Jr., Oscar Valdez, Leo Santa Cruz, Lee Selby, Abner Mares or Miguel Berchelt. We never saw Mikey fight any of those guys. That’s not to say that Mikey wouldn’t beat all of those fighters. But the fact of the matter is, Mikey might not be nearly as good as many boxing fans think he is. If Mikey isn’t as good as people think, then he’s going to be in serious trouble on Saturday night when he gets inside the ring with Broner.

“I know Mikey will be ready too. Robert Garcia definitely has some confidence from beating me with Marcos Maidana. But Mikey is not Maidana,” said Broner. ”He ain’t no Maidana. They know that, and there ain’t [expletive[ they can do to stop me from getting this victory. This mother [expletive] ain’t going to beat me and I’m dead serious,” said Broner.

It’s important for Broner to remind Garcia and his trainer Robert Garcia to not gets things twisted and start thinking that that they’re going to be able to do what the much bigger Maidana did. Mikey isn’t that big. He’s not going to walk into the ring almost as big as Gennady Golovkin on Saturday night. On fight night against Broner, Maidana weighed almost as much as Golovkin typically weighs for his fights. Mikey doesn’t have the frame to carry 165 lbs. and he never will. It would be a mistake for Garcia to build up to 165. It’s too late now anyway. Mikey likely will be in the 140s on fight night this Saturday.

”After I make it look easy, I want all you mother [expletive] out there writing those bad [expletive] stories about me to put something good up. I want him to bring his A-game. I’m coming to best his [expletive] though. I’ll [expletive] around and stop him if it presents itself, I’m going to take it,” said Broner.

When Broner said he was going to stop Mikey, it got a reaction out of him, as he turned and looked at him. It was pretty funny. I don’t think Mikey is used to fighting a confident fighter like Broner. Most of the guys Mikey has fought looked like they were mentally beaten before the fight.

Broner is a different story. He looks ready, confident and primed to pull off an upset Broner doesn’t see it as an upset. He just sees it as him doing the job on a guy that isn’t in his class. Broner sees the odds-makers as having gotten it wrong with them picking Mikey to win the fight.