The lights went down on the Matchroom/DAZN show in Fresno last night as Mikey Garcia’s career prospects faded with them.
Huge fights with Regis Prograis and Josh Taylor were written off, just like opponent Sandor Martin during the build-up.
Fans cried, “this fight means nothing for Mikey Garcia,” when the contest got announced. Many claimed Martin wasn’t fit to lace the multi-weight world champion’s gloves.
And if the real Mikey Garcia showed up, this might have been true – in some respects.
The truth is, Garcia clearly couldn’t get up for the fight, and as every round passed, his chances of winning dwindled.
Even the DAZN commentators admitted not knowing who Martin was. But they know him now as the Spaniard took a majority decision verdict.
After the result, a shell-shocked Eddie Hearn expressed his disbelief.
“An absolute huge upset here and a massive win for Spanish boxing as Sandor Martin beats Mikey Garcia in Fresno,” said the Matchroom promoter.
MIKEY GARCIA CAREER
Scores of 97-93 twice and 95-95 were enough to see Martin over the line. In the process, the win pushed his career record to 39-2.
His only losses came against Anthony Yigit in 2017 and Alexandre Lepelley in 2013, respectively.
Martin now enters the lower echelons of the pound for pound rankings for beating such a highly-rated opponent and has a plethora of options open to him moving forward.
As for Garcia, there’s no chance of facing Prograis or Taylor until he gets back to winning ways. Unfortunately for him, he has no rematch clause. But knowing Hearn, he will already have put the prospect of another fight between them to both men.
That’s likely where we go next, as interest in the fight will have been sparked by the most stunning result this year.
Just like the lighting in the arena, though, Garcia’s career is in serious jeopardy of diminishing if he doesn’t get a win in his next bout.
