Home Boxing News Mikey Garcia wants Errol Spence Jr ahead of Terence Crawford

Mikey Garcia wants Errol Spence Jr ahead of Terence Crawford

Mikey Garcia

IBF junior welterweight champion Mikey Garcia 38-0 (30) is looking north to welterweight where he wants to face IBF 147-pound champion Errol Spence Jr 23-0 (20) ahead of consensus top three pound-for-pound boxer Terence “Bud” Crawford.

Earlier this month Garcia defeated Sergey Lipinets 13-1 (10) of Russia by twelve round unanimous decision in San Antonio, Texas to become a four-division world titleholder.

The division-hopping Garcia – who still holds the WBC title at lightweight – doesn’t have a lot of big money options at 140-pounds. And with pound-for-pound stalwart Vasyl Lomachenko reaching an agreement to face longtime champion Jorge Linares for the WBA lightweight title on May 12 in New York, there’s not much left for the 30-year-old from Moreno Valley, California to face at 135-pounds either.

“I think against Spence it would be a very good fight, because he’s strong, he’s a stand-up fighter. He’s not going to be running, he’s going to make it a good fight. Crawford I think would be running more, using his height and his reach advantages… he wants to make it as easy as possible for him, and that’s the way he has to fight – but that makes it a dull fight sometimes and the fans don’t like that, and I don’t want that,” Garcia said to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports.

Former undisputed junior welterweight champion Crawford, who once held the WBO lightweight title, was scheduled to challenge Australia’s Jeff Horn for his WBO welterweight strap next month but was forced to withdraw due to a hand injury. The fight is expected to be rescheduled for late May or early June.

A fight between Crawford and Garcia holds little appeal for the Californian.

“[Crawford is] going to be running around the ring all night and I’m going to be chasing him. I’m going to be trying to cut the ring off of course. If I fight Terence one day, I’m going to be cutting off the ring and try to make it a physical fight, because that’s the only chance that I have. He’s going to be running around like he did in the amateurs when he fought me, using his height and reach advantages… it scores points, but it’s not really what you want,” said Garcia.

“Now Spence fights and I like that. I know he’s got the size advantage and the height advantage, but that doesn’t intimidate me because I know he’s going to be in there for a fight.”