Mikey Garcia is given “Emeritus Champion” status and plans to campaign at junior lightweight for the time being.
WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia has officially been labeled as the lightweight “Emeritus” champion. This means the now former champion can move back down to lightweight and as long as he still holds Emeritus status, he can get a bid to automatically face the current champion.
This shouldn’t be a surprise as Team Garcia has hinted towards a possible move up into the junior welterweight division, especially considering he briefly held the IBF title after defeating Sergey Lipinets in 2018.
The entire boxing community was hoping he would remain the WBC champion and look for a possible fight with unified champion Vasiliy Lomachenko. This news wasn’t received well by Top Rank head honcho Bob Arum, who has been very vocal about wanting to make that unification bout.
Garcia was once promoted by Top Rank and in a long legal battle was finally granted release, however, bad blood is still on the table.
Now Arum has been on the heels of the former WBC champion every since his fighter defeated Jorge Linares for the WBA title and Lineal status in 2018. The Top Rank CEO has accused Garcia of not wanting to fight the now unified champion, citing it was his reason for moving to welterweight. It’s been a fight many pundits have argued is still interesting with plenty of value.
However, there are some attractive fights for the four division champion at junior welterweight. There is the winner of the World Boxing Super Series tournament or a fight with another Top Rank fighter amd WBC champion Jose Ramirez.
Furthermore, all isn’t lost being placed in ’emeritus’ status if you are a fan of Garcia fighting at lightweight. Although, it will be an opportunity missed if we don’t get to see him face Lomachenko in the future!
By: Garrisson Bland
