Mikey Garcia Vacates IBF Belt, Looks to Make Fight With Spence

Mikey Garcia Vacates IBF Belt, Looks to Make Fight With Spence

By Gary Kittilsen

In Mikey Garcia’s last outing he unified the WBC and IBF lightweight titles by outpointing Robert Easter back in July, he has now officially vacated the IBF belt but has held on to the WBC belt.

This is the second time this year that Garcia has dropped an IBF belt back in April he dropped the organizations’ belt in the 140 pound division, a belt he had won just a month earlier when he earned a unanimous decision over Sergey Lipinets. Garcia was told by the IBF that he would have to go to purse bids with mandatory challenger Richard Commey, which was scheduled to take place later in the week. Instead, the younger Garcia brother opted to vacate the title and look for a fight elsewhere a clear sign that he will be abandoning the weight class altogether and looking to move up in weight for a mega fight.

Garcia said to ESPN “Yes, I vacated, I just didn’t have enough time to negotiate the Commey fight in the time the IBF required so I needed to vacate. I have a lot of options but the fight with Spence is the fight I want. The IBF was pushing for the Commey fight ASAP but with the WBC I have more time to decide what I want to do but I’m looking for bigger fights. We have options and I just couldn’t get excited for the Richard Commey fight.”

Garcia and Errol Spence are both advised by Al Haymon, so if both men want the fight it doesn’t seem like it should be hard to make and it does appear that both fighters are interested in making the fight happen. Garcia refused to talk about exactly where he and his team and Spence’s team stand in the negation process.

The two have negotiated in the past and looked to be very close to making a fight official back in the summer, Spence was even ringside at Garcia’s last fight. However, the negotiations seemed to hit a snag and both fighters went in different directions. However, Ringstar promoter Richard Schaefer said that Garcia’s decision to vacate the lightweight title was made so that he could dare himself to be great by facing Spence and that the two parties are very close. The fight is being rumoured to be held in Texas which makes sense, its Spence’s home state and Garcia has developed a large fan base and following having sold out various venues in the state throughout his career and to take place in February, the 16th and 23rd are being discussed.

Garcia will look to join only Ray Leonard, Manny Pacquiao. Floyd Mayweather, Thomas Hearns, and Oscar De La Hoya as the only fighters to capture world titles in five different weight classes. Errol Spence holds the IBF version of the welterweight title. It will be interesting to see if Garcia was victorious if he would vacate the IBF title, the third time he would vacate one of the organizations’ belts, to go back down to his more natural weight class.