By Daniel Gonzalez

Arlington, TX – The fearless four division world champion and current WBC and IBF lighweight title holder, Mikey Garcia (39-1, 30 KOs), was completely dominated by IBF welterweight champion Errol “The Truth” Spence, Jr. (25-0, 21 KOs) in front of the 47, 525 lucky fans at the AT&T Stadium last night.  It is not too often that two of the pound for pound top ten get in the ring with one another.  Although the judges scored the bout a shutout (120-107, 120-108-2 times) in favor of Spence,  Mikey Garcia’s willingness to challenge himself and take on the much avoided Desoto,Texas southpaw and risk his undefeated record was exactly what boxing fans needed.   In a day when marquee matchups take to long to materialize, Mikey Garcia showed the world and other boxers that taking risks is the only way to secure greatness.

Since this fight was announced, analysts and boxing fans wondered how it would turn out.  Honestly, it went even better than I predicted for Garcia.  I thought Mikey would not make it passed the 6 round against the bigger and stronger Spence.  In analyzing this match up, I could not help but to compare this fight to the 2017 match up between Vasily Lomachenko and Guillermo Rigondeaux.  Similar to Rigo, Garcia had already proven that he is one of the best sweet scientists in the boxing business prior to the matchup.  However, unlike Rigo, Garcia was able to go 12 rounds against the bigger man, despite his trainer/brother indicating to him after the 9th round that he was considering stopping the fight.

Although a moral victory only, Garcia not only won fans for having the courage to step in the ring with Spence, he also now knows that when he goes back down in weight, there is no one that will compare to the strength of Spence.

The punch stat difference in this bout essentially illustrated the story of the fight.  Spence overwhelmed Mikey in the fight and landed 345-of-1,082 punches, to just (75-of-406) for Garcia.  The “Truth” was that Mikey simply could not get into any rhythm at all.  When he tried to close the distance and land his own shots, he consistently found himself being detoured by Spence’s long and effective jab.  As the fight came to the later rounds, Spence’s jab led to him landging the bigger and stronger power punches to both the head and body of Garcia, which clearly discouraged the Oxnard, California native.  In the post fight interview, Garcia acknowledged the lopsideness of the fight, “…He’s a great champion. He’s the truth. He executed his game plan very well. He came out here with a good game plan and kept the distance in his favor. I couldn’t get my rhythm going, and he did what he had to do. I tried to make adjustments and he kept executing.”  Mikey who is known for making adjustment during the course of a fight simply was overmatched against the nearly 5ft-10in Spence.

After the fight, Spence, who was a 4-1 favorite on paper, made it clear that he would like a match up with Manny Paquiao (61-7-2, 39 KOs), who happened to be in attendance and was invited into the ring after the fight.  Both Spence and fellow welterweight champion Keith Thurman (29-0, 22 KOs) are vying for position to fight the aging, but legendary 8 division world champion.  They both realize how lucrative a fight with Manny Paquiao would be. A win over the Philipino senator would also boost their respective resumes.  Ironically, Floyd Mayweather also was seen in the ring during the fight introductions.

This well attended and star studded event undoubetedly appears to be the platform to which the next big fight in the welterweight division will launch.  It seems like a no brainer to me.  Paquiao v. Spence at the home of the Dallas Cowboys seems to be a fight that should be made in the near future.  Owner Jerry Jones will make sure of it.

Daniel Gonzalez is a Senior Boxing Writer. Dan writes for many publications including Boxing Action Magazine, www.BoxingAction24.com and www.SideStepBoxing.com

Photos courtesy of Ryan Hafey / Fox Sports and PBC.