Can Mikey Garcia beat Lomachenko? Why Pedraza seemed to have so much success

He should be being commended for fighting an opponent of Pedraza's quality and jumping straight back into a unification match up in his first fight coming back from a very serious career threatening injury and surgery and rehab to repair it, not being crucified because he clearly wasn't anywhere near his best which the injury obviously played a big part in. How many fighters would do that? That's not a rhetorical question.

He could easily have said that he needed a tune up fight first against a much lesser opponent to test out the shoulder and ease back into things to stand him in good stead for a unification fight after that and spare him from any criticism from the kettle of vultures circling above just waiting for him to slip up and make the tiniest mistake so they can swoop down and tear the flesh of his carcass, but he didn't.

No, he fought a two-weight world champion with just one blemish on their record (against a beast who he fought a very stupid fight against, much more recklessly and aggressively than he did against Loma), who in addition to holding wins over Tevin Farmer (via stoppage), Beltran, and numerous other decent opponents and me telling you before hand was too talented not to have some success against Loma, was also an excellent amateur - the highlight of his career winning silver at the World Amateur Championships, and with that big frame and reach of his is clearly suited to 135 and was bigger than Loma. In fact, a member of Pedraza's team said he might even more up to 140.

Even Pedraza said he thought it was way too soon for him to be fighting and that you need at least 12 months to recover properly, an opinion which was echoed by my boy Andre ''SOG'' Ward who suffered a similar injury and had to have surgery and extensive rehab to repair it, which IIRC he said was both very difficult mentally and physically.

This content is protected

In Loma's fight prior to facing Pedraza he moved up in weight and took on the #1 ranked 130 pounder in the world (no 3 tune ups to settle into the weight like certain other fighters. Hmmm..) who in addition to being one of the most naturally gifted fighters in the sport also held every physical advantage over him (height, reach, weight, and even probably speed as well (Linares' hands are stupidly fast, like he's unquestionably one of the very quickest in the sport as is GRJ) and pro experience on him and he stopped them despite fighting with a badly injured shoulder from the 2nd round onward.

How many times has Crawford, who has only stopped 3 of the 6 current of former world champions he's faced even though he had a 5lb and 6lb weight advantage over 2 of them and probably at least that over the other one, fought an opponent who had height, weight, reach, and speed over him, let alone one as gifted as Linares and in his first fight at the weight and fighting with a seriously injured shoulder from the 2nd round onward? Conversely, Loma has stopped 5 of the 7 current or former world champions he's faced even though 4 of them had a weight advantage over him and the world champions he's fought are of a higher calibre than the ones Crawford has faced, all bar one in his (Crawford's country).

 

The 10th was Pedraza's best round, Loma showed his character and his true level the very next one by going out there and beating the absolute dog**** out of him in the 11th, a round where he actually started using the right hand a lot more and punching in combination. Pedraza's a warrior (and he seems like a lovely guy from the interviews of his I've watched these past few weeks) and managed to hang tough and make it to the end of the round and indeed the final bell so credit to him for that.