Mikey Garcia: Broner will bring the best out of me

Boxingnews24.com

By Dan Ambrose: Mikey Garcia and Adrien “The Problem” Broner won’t have a world title on the line when they meet this Saturday night in the biggest fight of both of their careers at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Garcia, 29, says the fight against Broner is going to push him to bring the best out of him in their fight on Showtime Boxing.

Garcia is about to enter the wild west in his fight against Broner. This is a much different type of fighter than anyone Garcia has fought in the past. Broner is going to turn the fight into a war, Aaron Pryor style on Saturday night, and it’s going to be up to Mikey to show that he can hang with that kind of fighting.

Broner is the biggest fighter that Mikey has faced, and likely the most powerful. Mikey will need to display more of his game for him to beat the 27-year-old Broner on Saturday night. Garcia has won world titles at 126, 130 and 135. Saturday’s fight with Broner will take place in the light welterweight division at 140 lbs.

Garcia may need to use move of his boxing ability for him to get the ‘W’ against Broner, because just looking to slug might not be the best option for him. Broner is quite used to guys slugging with him, and it could turn out to be a bad idea for Garcia if he gets caught in that type of fight. While Garcia does throw with a lot of power on his single shots, he’s never been able to put his punches together to average a high punch output during his career.

Broner will be trying to force Garcia to throw a lot of shots to keep up with him. That kind of fight plays into Broner’s hands though, as he hits with power on every punch. He doesn’t need to load up like Garcia does. Broner is naturally powerful, and he can hit Garcia all night long without tiring.

As good as Mikey is, he won’t last long if Broner is throwing 80 to 100 punches per round against him. That’s the Aaron Pryor style that Broner has. Mikey is more like Alexis Arguello with the way he’s economical, and almost stingy with the shots he throws. As we saw in the Pryor-Arguello fights, the high punch rate for Pryor outdid Arguello every time despite the fact that he had more power than Pryor. If Broner lets his hands go like Pryor did, he’ll wear Mikey down and eventually stop him.

”I haven’t had the need to really push myself and Adrien Broner might be the one that pushes me to the limit, push me into second, third or fourth gear and bring the best out of me,” said Mikey via skysports.com. “I am fighting a four-weight world champion who has had some great fights, a great career, and has fought some of the best in those divisions in the last few years,” Mikey said.

Broner has fought guys that would likely have streamed through every guy that Mikey has fought before. Let’s be honest about this. Past Broner opponents like Marcos Maidana and Shawn Porter would beat everyone that Mikey has ever fought before, and likely have a better record than him. Granted, those are welterweights and not guys from the lighter weight classes, but none the less, Mikey’s accomplishments don’t mean a lot now that he’s fighting a guy like Broner.

Mikey’s upper limit might not be good enough if he doesn’t show more than what we’ve seen from him in the past. He’s not going to be able to land two or three punches in the fight and knockout Broner like he did with lightweight Dejan Zlaticanin. Mikey will need to do a lot more against Broner for him to get across the finish line. The way that Mikey has fought in the past won’t do the job. He’s not going to be able to knockout Broner by throwing 10 punches per round. Mikey is going to need to fight in a different way than he has in the past. If he can’t do that, then he’ll come up short.

“He is definitely one of my toughest challenges, especially because of the size. He has fought at light-welterweight before and is a big guy so that is probably the biggest challenge of the fight,” said Mikey. “You are definitely going to see more from Mikey Garcia and Broner is going to be the one to push me and bring the best out of me,” said Garcia.

Who is Mikey kidding? Broner is by far the toughest opponent of his career. The only guy that comes close to Broner on Mikey’s resume is Orlando Salido. Mikey beat Salido four years ago by an 8th round technical decision in a fight in which Mikey got away with pushing off on Salido through most of the fight.

Broner has a very good chance of exposing Mikey on Saturday by showing that he can’t throw enough punches to beat the top guys in the light welterweight division. Mikey is a good fighter in the smaller weight classes, but his style of fighting is made to order for Broner. This fight could turn out to be much like Broner’s fight against Antonio DeMarco in 2012. DeMarco was a guy known for being economical with his big power shots. Broner jumped on him from the opening round and gave DeMarco a beating in stopping him in the 8th round.

If Broner does the same thing against Mikey, we could see a stoppage in favor of Broner on Saturday night in their fight on Showtime boxing. The good news for Mikey is his career wouldn’t be hurt too badly. He could go back down to lightweight and tell his boxing fans that he didn’t have the size to compete against a guy the size of Broner. Some fans would be sympathetic to Mikey and not hold it against him. Like Saul Canelo Alvarez not taking a hit after his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr., Mikey would be able to escape a loss to Broner without him losing popularity, as long as he’s able to move back down to 135 and continue to find success in that weight class.