Mikey Garcia vacates titles; seeks bout with Spence

Mikey Garcia vacated his IBF Lightweight title as he closes in on a fight with champion Errol Spence Jr, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.

“Yes, I vacated,” Garcia told ESPN on Tuesday afternoon. “I just didn’t have enough time to negotiate the Commey fight in the time the IBF required so I needed to vacate. I have a lot of options but the fight with Spence is the fight I want.”

“The IBF was pushing for the Commey fight ASAP but with the WBC I have more time to decide what I want to do,” Garcia said. “But I’m looking for bigger fights. We have options and I just couldn’t get excited for the fight and the timing [the IBF] required to get it done was not enough time to negotiate considering the other options I have.”

“I met with Mikey and the fact is Mikey is not the kind of guy to say something for the heck of it,” promoter Richard Schaefer said. “When he said he wanted to fight Spence and that it was the fight that motivated him and excited him, he was serious. He takes pride in winning these world titles, but if you are one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world you want these big events and big challenges. For Mikey to get motivated after already having achieved so much, he really wants to test himself. He wants to dare to be great and the fight with Spence is the fight he told me he wants to pursue and that’s the fight we are pursuing.

“I will be sitting down with Mikey and Al and see if we can get it done. I know both fighters want it and hopefully it’s the fight we will see. It will be a big, big event. You have two guys on top of their game, two guys in the top five pound- for-pound in the prime of their careers. It doesn’t get much bigger than that.”

“The fight is being discussed but there are a lot of things that need to be addressed,” he said. “There are ongoing conversations, but Mikey’s statement in vacating the IBF belt is, ‘Hey, I want that big challenge, I want Spence.’ That’s the statement. And so now it’s a matter to see if in fact it can be done. But it’s not like it’s going to be announced next week.

“Mikey realizes if he goes and beats Errol Spence he will be the new pay-per-view star and he would be No. 1 pound-for- pound and for Spence to beat Garcia would be a tremendous start to establish himself as a pay-per-view fighter.”

“It was not unexpected,” DiBella said of Garcia’s decision to vacate. “Now I will be working out a deal for Richard to fight Isa Chaniev. Richard wants to fight the biggest and best fights at 135 pounds. We made a deal with Mikey but we knew there were other fights being discussed so we’re not shocked. I think Richard beats Chaniev. I will look to make that deal and get him in the ring as soon as possible.”