Will the real Mikey Garcia please stand up?
By Anthony "Zute" George
It wasn’t that long ago that Mikey Garcia was competing on the highest level in boxing, and considered to be one of the top pugilists in the world. He captured the featherweight title four years ago by dismantling Orlando Salido in New York.
A few months later he knocked out Juan Manuel Lopez, and completed his year by adding the super featherweight crown.
Then everything stopped. Garcia went to war with promoter Bob Arum over his contract.
Garcia (35-0, 29 KOs) went from being super featherweight king to being inactive for around 2 ½ years faster than you can say “alternative facts”; some say those years were his prime years.
He can’t get those years back, but he can capture WBC version of the lightweight championship this Saturday night on the undercard of the Carl Frampton versus Leo Santa Cruz rematch.
Garcia,29, will have to defeat Dejan Zlaticanin to accomplish this task.
Zlaticanin (22-0, 15 KOs) is a strong, undefeated southpaw with plenty of pop in his left hand.
A native of Podgorica, Montenegro, Zlaticanin picked up the WBC lightweight title last June by stopping one Franklin Mamani. Over the course of his professional career, the 32-year-old Zlaticanin has defeated quality opponents such as Petr Petrov, Ricky Burns and Ivan Redkach.
Zlaticanin is also a natural lightweight; something Mikey Garcia is not.
You put all of these ingredients together and it makes for a complicated stew for Garcia to digest.
Zlaticanin, however, is one dimensional. If he cannot hurt Garcia early, I do not foresee him outpointing Garcia.
He just does not have that skill set. While tough to deal with, the style of Zlaticanin is destined to bring out the best of an all-around, superior boxer, as Garcia is supposed to be.
We know he once was. Saturday night we will find out if he still is.
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