It's almost 2020 guys. The fight should have happened by now. Both were prime, both were top p4p guys. It should have happened, it did not. Mikey bitched, complained, moaned non stop for years. Talking about cross networks, Bob Arum sucks, he wants more money, I would beat Loma, blah, blah, blah. Then Loma goes up to 135. Garcia goes to an even higher weight class almost immediately cuz of Loma. Then he vacates his 135 belt. Then he fights Spence. I'm not biased. I dont love Loma. I'm not a massive Loma fan. But sometimes things are what they are. Garcia had no intentions of fighting Loma.
I wouldn't say he ducked him. He did fight Spence which was a much harder fight for him than Loma would be.
Pretty clear to me at this point that Garcia doesn't care about his legacy anymore and is just chasing bigger money fights at higher weights. If he took the Loma fight and lost then the higher weight fights have far less appeal. I think the Loma fight will eventually happen but not before Garcia takes another loss or two at Welterweight and going back down. At which time much of the appeal will have dissipated.
That's the point. He takes a loss against Spence for a decent payday it can easily be spun as "whatever he went up in weight and lost to a bigger champion." If he lost to Loma there really isn't much of a career route for him other than crawling all the way back up the ladder and looking for a rematch which based on his m.o he wouldn't be keen on doing. The super fights at higher weights are also off the table had he fought Loma first and loss, but the Loma fight is still there.
He still fought Spence regardless. You can't just invent an excuse YOU believe someone will use as convenient.
Either fight was a challenge for MG. I'm not going to be one to cry about one fight not happening when a suitable fight took it's spot.
Spence vs Garcia is not a suitable fight. A fight should be competitive or a mandatory defense in order to be suitable.
Yes I think he ducked Loma imo but also not many guys would chase the Spence fight who is naturally smaller. However Garcia has no business at 147.
Well, I can give you that. But still, MG moved to face a major threat, not just some scrub w/ a belt. I wanted Loma - MG too. It's certainly not too late for it to happen in the near future.
Of course he did. He knows what beating the no.1 p4p matrix would have done for him. He simply thought that the Loma fight will still be there if he lost to Spence, but not vice Versa.
This, in a nutshell. There wasn't a "now or never" urgency that made Mikey fight Spence first. Spence wasn't going anywhere. That move only got made because, like you said, he could afford to lose to Spence first and still get a Loma fight, but he couldn't afford to lose to Loma first. The Spence fight would've been dead in the water.
This. Mikey made a business decision and fought Spence for more money and media attention much like Bradley fighting PAC instead of Khan.
It was good business...losing to Spence isn't as damaging to the brand, and the Loma fight can still happen. The part that was bad business was dropping his 135 title afterward, as that was his only real leverage on Loma.