There is a p4p top-tier boxer, in his prime, that nobody brings up anymore.

Miguel Ángel García. Remember him?

Since he knocked out Rocky Martinez 25 months ago (which has aged very well, given that Martinez reclaimed his title and defended it with a rivalry against the highly respected Orlando Salido) the pride of his gran hermano Grandpa Robert's stable has fought exactly once in a rout of Mini-Burgos - and that was just 2½ months after he fought Martinez. Even if a match were to be announced today, it would still be a couple of months out to allow time for training camp and promotion. That means at minimum we can project a ring absence exceeding two full calendar years. He fought once at the age of 26 (barely, a month after his birthday) and will not have fought at the age of 27, with nothing lined up for after his 28th birthday. These are PRIME YEARS.

Why is nobody else upset that we aren't seeing him?

I get that many feel his issues with Top Rank are the bed he made and must now lie in, and that some don't sympathize with him stubbornly playing a game of chicken with a powerful entity like Arum with more years in the business under his belt than Mikey has even been alive.

This isn't about the blame game - rather, how much does it suck that we are being deprived of 2+ years of a top fighter's prime? He was the man at feather and then super feather before his sabbatical. The sport is poorer for his absence from the picture now...and that isn't meant to sound gushy. There are lots of tremendous match-ups he could be involved with at super feather or lightweight. If they were made, who knows, we might be surprised, and he might get upset at least once in the process of taking on the best at 130 and 135...and there are guys at both weights for whom I'd be rooting to do so if he fought them. He isn't only not participating in the whittling down process to determine the best at either weight (or even pound for pound), though - he isn't fighting, period. That much talent, and just sitting on the shelf like a Christmas elf, hands clasped over his knees and glancing coyly off to one side. :-(

Yet everybody's attention span is too short to ever bemoan this fact or delve into his situation with TR more than an occasional thread every few months wondering about his contractual status getting a few replies and then fizzling out?

Every time I see a title of a thread containing "Garcia" it turns out to be about Danny. With all due respect to Swift, there should be half as many threads about him at most, as he literally isn't a quarter as talented (or potentially fit to rule a division or two) as Mikey.

 

Why not just fight anyway? Mayweather simply bought out his contract with Arum, so why don't other boxers that get stuck in a bind with him? I'm sure it wouldn't be cheap but it has to be preferable to frittering away two years of your prime just never competing?

Or, just schedule a fight without TR's involvement and put the onus upon them if they want to do something about it. What is Arum going to do, have an event shut down over a pending legal case? Don King famously did this with Mayorga's attempt to infiltrate MMA (in fact it led to an entire promotion's demise) but in this situation what's to stop Garcia from just fighting anyway, regardless of whether TR is still claiming him to be in breach of a still-valid contract, then letting it get settled in court afterward? What might stand in his way of that? Sure, Bob has pull in the industry but so does the Garcia camp, and so does Cameron Dunkin, and so do any of the other large promotional outfits that would happily snap up Garcia on the rebound, baggage & all.

^ These are the kinds of questions conversations we should be seeing.

Just accepting that a top fighter is going this long without being active makes no sense. There are still Andre Ward threads on a weekly if not daily basis, so why not Mikey Garcia threads?

 

Yeah. I'm not sure why this has taken upwards of two years to resolve. Garcia and his camp attest that Arum has been in violation of the Ali Act, and that his obligations to them expired as of last February. Top Rank alleges that Garcia is still under valid contract with them. One party has to be right and the other wrong in the eyes of the law and the boxing commissions. What is the hold up in sorting this all out? I get that litigation can drag out but this seems fairly cut and dry. There either is evidence to support the claims of the Garcia camp or there isn't. There is either evidence to support Top Rank's side or there isn't. How many court dates have they had?

These are questions that should be popping up more often, and reported upon by the boxing media, instead of "lololol Tyson Fury sang Wlad a lullaby and sat in a sauna with him a few years ago!!!" or "some of Mayweather's cars broke!"

 

Let's say he does return in 2016. Assuming he picks up where he left off and can still perform as well as he did against Burgos (after maybe a tuneup or two) - how does MAG fare against the champs at 130lbs?

• Rematch with Rocky? (to regain his old WBO belt)
• Uchiyama? (WBA Super)
• Fortuna? (WBA regular)
• Pedraza? (IBF)
• Vargas? (WBC)

...or, if has outgrown the weight, at 135lbs?

• Flanagan? (WBO)
• Crolla? (WBA regular)
• Mitchell/Barroso? (WBA interim)
• Shafikov/Barthelemy? (IBF)
• Linares? (WBC)

More than half of those names were not even in the world title picture when Mikey was last active. Things are heating up in both divisions. Him not being in the mix hurts both his career and the legitimacy of whomever should emerge as "the man" at either weight, as there will always be that elephant in the room.

 

He certainly wouldn't be the first skilled & talented operator to profess a complete lack of passion for the sport in any capacity. Lots of champions have viewed it as "just a way to punch the clock" and claimed they didn't love it and don't follow boxing outside their own division (or in some cases, don't even bother to follow that as far as scouting out their potential competition).

Steven Luevano, Jermain Taylor, etc.

 

All ten, with no doubts? :think

Bandido and Sniper are probably the biggest threats at SFW, if only because Uchiyama is getting on in years. (he previously would've made for a stylistic pick 'em, until probably around when Garcia ceased to be active).

He probably spanks Martinez 10/10, even if Rocky is "on" like he was for Salido I & II. Just a bad match-up for Martinez.

Fortuna would be absolutely schooled. His reliance on speed, power, and raw athleticism would see him exposed harshly by Garcia's cut-above timing & technique.


Up at LW... he would be a step too far I think for any of the Brits (Flanagan/Crolla/Mitchell ...the latter two lucky to be in the championship discussion at all, and Flanagan a very clean & tidy boxer but likely out of his depth with Garcia). Barroso is too raw. Shafikov, as much stick as he gets for his underwhelming try in the loss to Vazquez, is actually quite good but even he would be climbing uphill with Garcia. Linares would be highlight-reel KTFO.

 

Not to mention, he is actively calling out WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford.

Now that is a juicy proposition, but it probably needs some building first. Garcia can't just waltz in like 2 years off didn't happen and expect himself versus Crawford to be a big moneymaker. Perhaps he should just suck it up and jump through a hoop or two for Top Rank, at least wetting his toes in the ring again, to let demand build for him to move up and challenge Bud. (you know, debuting at 140lb or even 135lb might help, considering he's talking about skipping a division from where he left off)