Mikey Garcia vacates is JW belt.

[bmilligan]

Garcia notified the IBF he will vacate his belt, and keep is LW belt.

http://www.espn.com/boxing/story/_/id/2 ... eight-belt

As Rafeal says. Big fight up next with Easter Jr. and eventually the winner of Linars-LoMo

Thoughts?

[oogiebe]

I think it's a great move. He can dominate at lightweight. Junior welter is a very competitive division. He has time to fill out more and move up more naturally. IMHO.

[bmilligan]

I agree, great big money fights at 135 right now for him. Chance for him to unify.

[SenorPipino]

He dominates Easter.

Garcia-Lomachenko would be fascinating.

[oogiebe]

He dominates Easter.

Garcia-Lomachenko would be fascinating.

RIGHT?!

[Ruthless-RKO]

This will shut those up that said he was moving up to avoid Loma. Easter will likely be next. WBC/IBF unification.

Who has the WBO belt that Flanagan vacated?

[oogiebe]

This will shut those up that said he was moving up to avoid Loma. Easter will likely be next. WBC/IBF unification.

Who has the WBO belt that Flanagan vacated?

Open.

[jamamb]

beltran

[Badhusker]

Great news. I would love to see MG vs Lomachenko. I think Loma will dominate Linares. To me if MG fights Loma at 135 it will be one of the biggest fights of the year if not the biggest.

[bmilligan]

That would be a great fight September or October for sure. MG vs Loma.

Could the winner be P4P King?

[jamamb]

mikey beats loma, but there both p4p elite

[Ruthless-RKO]

beltran

Forgot about him..

[gilgamesh]

It's the right move for his career definitely.

Welterweight I think would be a bridge too far for him size wise(at least right now, he may grow into it more naturally later), and there's definitely bigger money opponents at 135 than at 140, if anything he's just kinda made any potential Lightweights showdowns bigger by just adding another Championship to his resume.

Easter is surely who he'll be fighting first, but hopefully we get to see him fight the Loma/Linares winner as well.

[ElJefe]

I wonder if this decision had anything to do with the WBSS. Saw Hearn suggest that the next divisions would be Bantamweight and Light-Welterweight. Maybe Mikey didn't fancy having his next 3 fights against tough young 140lbers for relatively little money when there's bigger fights to be made at 135.

Either way I'm not complaining. Lomachenko, Linares, Easter and Beltran are all decent fights. Maybe he can step back up in a year or 2 and face the winner of a WBSS.

[Kalan]

Lomachenko vs Garcia might be the best boxing match that anyone will ever see.

[paddy chavez]

I'm not as sold on Mikey as most he seems to fight in straight lines with slow feet to me