Mikey Garcia became a four-weight champion following a dominating victory over Sergey Lipinets in San Antonio, Texas. Ringside officials favoured the Pound for Pound climber on tallies of 116-111 and 117-111 (twice), while Boxing Base had matters considerably wider at 118-109. Garcia now extends his unbeaten run to 38 wins, 30 knockouts, with Lipinets suffers his first blip, reducing to 13 wins, 1 defeat, 10 knockouts.
Although Lipinets ultimately lacked the goods to retain his IBF title, he did play his part in tonight’s lively encounter, proving his durability and fighting spirit as he kept coming for twelve, hard rounds. Lipinets didn’t bag more than two stanzas on BB’s scorecard, but that’s not to say he wasn’t competitive in others where he landed some vicious, eye-catching hooks. The problem: Garcia was just the better, smarter fighter.
Garcia’s deceptively simple offense allowed him to assume the role of ring general, with a thudding jab and power straight right being established early on. Garcia, a renowned technician who has zero qualms about going to war if pushed, scored the sole knockdown of the fight in the 7th. Lipinets, who had decided to charge forward and roll the dice, got caught by a left hook to the chin, with Garcia’s shot, landed with laser precision, sending him straight to the canvas.
Lipinets rose to his feet and gamely fought on, taking the fight to Garcia in spots down the stretch, but was unable to land anything capable of deterring, offsetting or significantly hurting his superior foe. Lipinets’ gutsy effort will no doubt see him back on the scene soon, and, let’s remember, a distance defeat to Mikey Garcia isn’t the worst outcome that could have surfaced tonight.
With the victory, Garcia’s profile continues to swell, opening yet more doors to bigger, better fights. Now a four-weight champion, Garcia is one of the planet’s most talented, exciting fighters, currently holding straps at both Lightweight and Junior Welter. The formidable boxer-puncher is also storming Boxing Base’s Top 10 Rankings, riding the No.2 spot at Lightweight, No.1 at Junior Welter, and No.6 in the Pound-for-Pound arena.
So what’s next for Garcia? Well, Jorge Linares, Robert Easter and Raymundo Beltran are all 135-pound title holders, with Linares representing the hottest ticket so far as star power matchmaking is concerned. With Terence Crawford set to make his 147 debut (against Jeff Horn on April 14), Viktor Postol now becomes Garcia’s only real rival at 140. Beyond that, there’s room for more speculation, but these fights seem like the best prospects for Garcia’s immediate future. We’ll soon see.
How did you rate Mikey Garcia’s performance tonight? And who would you like to see him lock horns with next? Jorge Linares, Viktor Postol or Terence Crawford?
