Mikey Garcia V Errol Spence: A Fight for The Ages - Pound 4 Pound vs Pound 4 Pound

On Saturday 16th March 2019, Errol Spence is putting his IBF Welterweight title on the line against the highly talented and super confident Mikey Garcia. Writing a prediction for this fight is almost like crystal ball gazing; on paper Spence is going to be naturally so much bigger than Garcia. Mikey began his career at 126lbs. He was a tall featherweight. His first title was the WBO featherweight title. He won the 126lb title against the tough Orlando Salida in 2013. Mikey went on to make one defense before moving up to superfeather and winning the WBO title. I liked Mikey at superfeather, he was a beast.

Mikey only made 1 title defense before being out of the ring for over two years due to managerial disputes. On his return, Mikey moved up to 135lbs and won the WBC lightweight title. Not content with that, Mikey looked slightly fleshy when he moved up to 140lbs and won the IBF lightwelterweight title. Thankfully Mikey next moved back down to 135lbs to beat Robert Easter for the WBC lightweight title. Let’s come back to Mikey in a moment.
Errol Spence is a career welterweight. I remember Errol coming to the 2012 London Olympic Games. The USA has struggled recently to win medals at the Olympics yet Errol was their hope to pick up a Gold, he managed to reach the quarterfinals before being eliminated.

Errol turned pro without a Gold medal and so with little fanfare. People, I felt were holding judgment on this talented welterweight. Errol was quite active early in his career and began to gain rave reviews against good opposition like Phil Lo Greco, Chris Algieri, and Leonard Bundu. This culminated in Errol going to England to take on the excellent Kel Brook.  This time Spence was determined to not leave the UK empty-handed. After a highly competitive two way fight, Errol smashed Kel’s orbital bone and so Brook surrendered in the 11th round. Errol Spence was now IBF World Welterweight Champion, he had fulfilled the potential everyone had been saying he had. Errol next defended his title with a 7th round stoppage of former champ Lamont Peterson. Carlos Ocampo was next stopped in the 1st round, in June 2018. This has lead us to the Mikey Garcia fight.

There is no doubt in my mind the both Mikey Garcia and Errol Spence are pound for pound great fighters at their weights, I’d even consider Mikey for the Hall of Fame. Mikey has moved from 126lbs to 140lbs and won world title fights along the way. I believe Mikey’s best weight being at 130lbs. However, Errol Spence is an excellent champion at 147lbs, that’s a massive amount of natural weight Mikey is going to be giving up. How much will Spence way on the night, (after 24 hours of rehydration) 160lbs? Consider how much Garcia will weight on the night? There could be an enormous amount of weight disparity. Mikey has beaten very strong and powerful opponents such as Adrien Broner, yet Errol Spence is a true welterweight, Broner isn’t. I admire Garcia’s bravery and unyielding confidence to be taking on the welterweight champion, yet I wonder if he can survive the size and power difference, Garcia has been put down and wobbled by smaller men. Garcia is going to be submitting 31/2 inches in height and 4 inches in arm length, these are significant defenses. Mikey is a tall fighter, he’s not a bustling short fighter like Mike Tyson. He’s going to need to get inside the excellent jab and ringcraft on Errol Spence. He’s going to need to do this without being clipped by the powerful champion, it’s not an easy task. There’s no doubt that Garcia has excellent power, just look at his highlight KO reel on youtube, yet will his power transfer to welterweight, I doubt this.


In Errol Spence, Mikey is not facing an average champion; Spence is a stand-out elite world champ that is being championed by boxing experts. If Garcia was fighting a regular world champion I might fancy his chances, yet here I don’t. I believe that Garcia is facing a peak, elite world champion that is much bigger and stronger than him. I feel that Spence can pretty much match him for skill and speed. That’s not to underestimate Mikey Garcia, I believe Garcia is pound 4 pound better than the brilliant Errol Spence, but at a smaller weight class.

So now we have the background. I see Mikey Garcia getting off to an excellent start, he’ll dart in and out with fast powerful flurries. He’ll confuse, bewilder and maybe even hurt Errol. However, as we head into the championship rounds the 29-year-old Spence will start to find his rhythm and gain insight into the Garcia style. I see Spence wearing down and battering lightweight champion Mikey Garcia for a stoppage by rounds 8-10. It’s an excellent match-up but there’s a reason why we have weight classes, it’s a weight division too many for the excellent Mikey Garcia.

What do you think? Does Garcia have a chance? Thanks for reading.