Showtime is presenting us with a four fight card spread over two networks this weekend. In the main event, pound for pound elite fighter Miguel “Mikey” Garcia will attempt to win his fourth world title in as many weight classes by taking on junior welterweight titleholder Sergey Lipinets. The co-main event features a rematch of a good first bout between Rances Barthelemy and Kiryl Relikh for a vacant title in the same division after Showtime Extreme opens the show with a two preliminary contests.
Mikey Garcia (37-0, 30 KOs) was a known prospect coming up out of the Top Rank stable for a while, but he got his first major exposure as the HBO co-feature to a then rising Yuriorkis Gamboa card against Matt Remillard. Another trio of HBO appearances followed before he got his first world title crack against the always tough Orlando Salido. Young Mikey really established himself as a potential star that night too. He put Salido down three times before the non-contest was stopped due to Garcia’s nose being badly injured by an “accidental” Salido patented headbutt, giving the Mexican-American the belt on the cards.
Mikey tried to defend the belt, but he failed to make weight because he was just too big for featherweight. He knocked out Puerto Rican star JuanMa Lopez anyway though before moving up. Garcia immediately won a junior lightweight belt in his first fight at the weight. Again, it was over a really good fighter in Rocky Martinez, and again it was by knockout. Garcia defended the belt one more time. Then he vanished.
It was a contract dispute that, for a while, derailed his career. To simplify, Garcia and his team felt Top Rank wasn’t fulfilling the terms of the contract and that it was therefore void. Top Rank, of course, disagreed. This kept Mikey Garcia out of the ring for two and a half of his prime years. Boxing didn’t forget him, but it stripped him of his title and moved on unsure if the sport would ever seen the undefeated former champion again.
The issue was finally settled by the summer of 2016, however, and Garcia returned. He took a fall tune up and then jumped into a lightweight title fight against new titlist Dejan Zlaticanin of Montenegro in January of 2017. I thought Zlaticanin had the look of a potentially good fighter on the world scene, but it didn’t matter. Garcia put him out with a knockout of the year candidate in only three rounds.
This led to the biggest fight of Mikey Garcia’s career in July at junior welterweight against the popular and controversial Adrien Broner. Given that Garcia had only just become a lightweight and Broner has real experience up at welterweight, I had some logical sized based concerns for their junior welterweight showdown. It didn’t matter though. The three division titleholder comfortably controlled and battered Adrien Broner on his way to a wide, one sided decision win.
Junior welterweight is where Mikey Garcia will meet Sergey Lipinets (13-0, 10 KOs) for his world title Saturday night as well. Since the pound for pound elite Mexican-American did largely dispel my worries about size and weight with his easy handling of Adrien Broner, I don’t really think he will be threatened here either.
The 28 year old Kazakh born Russian is certainly a talented up and coming fighter, but there are real levels to this game. Mikey Garcia represents the highest level possible and Lipinets has seen nothing like it. His early 2016 win over Levan Ghvamichava was an outstanding win for only his ninth professional fight, but oddly Sergey has not topped it since despite winning his belt.
After a pair of treading water type wins following that good one versus “The White Wolf,” the young Russian met unheralded Japanese non-contender Akihiro Kondo in November for a Terence Crawford vacated belt. That fight was clearly set up as a way for Lipinets to knock over a middling opponent and claim a risk free title. Unfortunately for him and fortunately for us in terms of entertainment value, Kondo was able to get a surprising amount done with his aggressive style. The fight was entertaining and very competitive. I didn’t agree and thought Sergey cleanly deserved the win, but it was close enough that Showtime even scored the fight a draw.
I can’t imagine a fighter who struggles with Akihiro Kondo one fight turning around and having much success against Mikey Garcia in his next fight. Styles make fights and all, but it boggles the mind to try to even create such a scenario. I do question Mikey’s power a little at the weight, however, so I do expect this to go twelve in a near shut out win for the soon to be four weight world titleholder. Should he succeed, I believe Garcia will become the seventeenth fighter to pull off the feat in the history of the sport.
In the co-main event, Cuban former two division titleholder Rances Barthelemy (26-0, 13 KOs) goes for his third world title in a rematch of last May’s entertaining scrap against Belorussian contender Kiryl Relikh (21-2, 19 KOs) for the vacant WBA belt at junior welterweight. This is what I had to say about the first fight. It is admittedly brief as the quality battle was overshadowed that night by the riot inducing in-ring chaos that followed Jose Uzcategui’s disqualification loss to Andre Dirrell, but it still sums up my feelings well:
In the Showtime opener from the US, Rances Barthelemy edged a tough, tough fight over the super game Belorussian Kyril Relikh. Relikh was far more active and scored a knockdown in the fifth, but his Cuban, two division titlist opponent was able to score more points overall chiefly behind a fierce body attack.
Barthelemy hurt Relikh twice in the fight on body shots, dropping him once. Showtime cried robbery, but I scored the fight 114-112 for Barthelemy. 117-109 is indeed too wide, but that doesn’t mean Barthelemy did not win that fight. This was frustrating for me as it was both clear to me that Barthelemy was going to earn a decision and that Showtime was going to cry robbery even before the scores were read, but I suppose there is nothing I can do about it.
It was a frustrating feeling knowing that Barthelemy won fair, the judges would probably get it right, but Showtime’s bad card would cause them to cry foul before it even played out that way. Still, the fight was fun and I do not mind the rematch one bit as the co-feature to this card.
Showtime Extreme is also bringing a two fight preliminary card as well. 26 year old untested PBC lightweight prospect Alejandro Luna (22-0, 15 KOs) headlines it in a big step up fight against well marked Ghanaian lightweight contender Richard Commey (25-2, 22 KOs). Commey’s two losses were both hyper competitive and entertaining tilts against IBF titleholder Robert Easter Jr and top Russian contender Denis Shafikov. Those are real solid names. Though Commey did not get either decision, both fights were razor close and there for him to win. Accordingly, this fight marks a giant leap up in class for Luna. We will really learn about the Californian prospect come Saturday night. I love these kinds of fights. As the cherry on top, the winner will be named the IBF mandatory challenger for Easter’s belt as well.
Unfortunately, Mario Barrios’s (20-0, 12 KOs) matchup with Dominican Eudy Bernardo (23-2, 18 KOs) and his inflated record is not a step up in the Showtime Extreme opener. Barrios continues to be matched soft here. He hasn’t shown himself to be a particularly compelling prospect in these softball fights either.
Regardless, the Showtime Extreme fights begin at 8 PM Eastern and the Showtime main card at 10. This will be competing with Top Rank’s ESPN card headlined by Oscar Valdez’s title defense against Scott Quigg, but I do expect that card to be delayed by the basketball preceding it at the very least.
