Former four-weight world champion Mikey Garcia 40-1 (30) says he would love to face undisputed junior welterweight champion Josh ‘The Tartan Tornado’ Taylor 18-0 (13) but promotional rivalries could prevent the fight from happening.
The 33-year-old Californian was previously promoted by Top Rank before an acrimonious split. Taylor is promoted by Top Rank.
“I would love to fight Taylor, of course,” Garcia said to FightHype. “When has a fighter said no to a good fight?
“You’ve got to remind people that there’s a business side to it where a promoter looks at the business before the legacy or any of that before the best interest of the fighter.
“He looks at the business first. The managers do the same. They look at the business before the networks.
“You got to look at a bunch of things before you decide if a fight is possible or not.
“Taylor would be a great matchup, but just to remind you, he’s with Top Rank.”
Garcia won his first world title at featherweight when he lifted the WBO strap from hardnosed Mexican Orlando Salido by eight-round technical decision in January 2013 after an accidental headclash broke his nose.
He lost the title on the scales before his first defence against Juan Manuel Lopez – a fight he won by fourth-round knockout – before moving up in weight to claim the WBO super featherweight title from Roman Martinez by eighth-round knockout in November 2013.
Garcia went on to add the WBC lightweight title to his collection with a third-round knockout of Dejan Zlaticanin in January 2017 before relieving Sergey Lipinets of his IBF junior welterweight belt in March of the following year.
His lone loss came against current WBC and IBF welterweight champion Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr 27-0 (21) on points in March 2019. It was a one-sided drubbing with Garcia failing to win a single round on the official scorecards.
Garcia insists the beating hasn’t changed him as a fighter.
“I don’t know. I don’t think so. In what way?” Garcia said.
“I don’t think it did. I don’t know in what way. It’s just that people don’t see me on a daily, so they don’t know much about me as much as they think they know.
“Maybe they forgot about the fight with Jessie Vargas [in February 2020], so they feel that my last fight was against Spence.
“So they didn’t find out about the Jessie fight and so they haven’t heard and haven’t seen me. Last year, Covid happened, and almost every fighter was out the entire year.
“People don’t look into it. It’s very easy for them to open their mouth and comment, but they don’t really do their research and talk and find out the real facts.
“A lot of fighters took the last year off. I had one fight. A lot of fighters didn’t have a single fight. I don’t think it changed me.
“I don’t think I’ve changed at all. I don’t think anything has changed me. I’m the same person from day one and people close to me will say the same person.”
