Mikey Garcia Knows Risky Fights Are Necessary to Get Career Back on Track

Mikey Garcia knows he faces a huge test when he steps into the ring to challenge Dejan Zlaticanin for the WBC Lightweight Championship Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in a fight broadcast by Showtime.

It's just his second fight back after a two-plus-year layoff and will come against a rugged champion with a huge left hand and a chance to become a big star with a win.

Everything about this fight says danger, but that's how Garcia wants it.

"He's a very good, aggressive fighter with dangerous power. He's always coming in looking for the knockout, looking for big shots, trying to land his big, overhand left, right hand to the body. Just, he's very good at what he does," Garcia said on a media conference call.

"So when you beat someone that's a dangerous and like undefeated world champion like himself, that gives me more credibility, and I just feel that it's a much better victory than vying for a vacant title."

Garcia, who won world championships at featherweight and super featherweight before dropping off the radar following a one-sided win over Juan Carlos Burgos in January 2014, believes Zlaticanin is the most dangerous champion at 135 pounds.

He might well be right about that.

Zlaticanin became the first boxing world champion from his native Montenegro with an easy knockout of Franklin Mamani to capture a vacant title last June.

He’s a powerful puncher with a big left hand and an aggressive style that never seems to quit.

Both men are taking a risk here—a growing rarity in many quarters of the sport these days—but that's what makes this fight so compelling.

Tom Pennington/Getty Images

It's going to require each man to push for his absolute best and go to the next level.

"That shows his confidence, and that shows that it will be a great fight. Like I said before, I don't want a guy that's just going to go in there and take a beating," Garcia said.

"I want somebody that I can push to the next level, somebody that can really test me, and I think Dejan is the perfect man to do that."

Garcia looked like a future pound-for-pound superstar when he put together 34 straight wins with 28 knockouts and two world titles coming against high-quality opposition.

The Ventura, California, fighter seemed to have salivating matchups all around him but spent two-and-a-half years away from the game while trying to resolve a contract dispute with his then-promoter Top Rank.

That split finally came last summer. Garcia—who is a promotional free agent but will be appearing on a second consecutive Showtime card and his first promoted by Richard Schaefer's Ringstar Sports—returned in July with an easy win over former featherweight titlist Elio Rojas.

Rojas was largely inactive prior to the fight, but Garcia looked like he didn't miss a step.

His trademark speed and power were still there in abundance, but Rojas, even though the fight was contested at a catchweight of 138 pounds, doesn't compare to Zlaticanin in skill or size.

"He's definitely going to be the biggest guy that I face. As far as a natural lightweight, yes, he's probably the most dangerous in that aspect. He's the strongest, biggest guy that I faced in my career," Garcia said.

"Even though we fought in my last fight 140 pounds, fought the former featherweight champion in Rojas. I was fighting a guy that used to be the same size as me at featherweight and at 130 pounds. But now I’m fighting a naturally big, 135-pound world champion."

Elsa/Getty Images

Garcia had to fend off questions about whether or not he was overlooking this fight and looking toward the future with a dangerous opponent still standing in his way.

Any talk about future fights, unifying the division and making up for lost time could come crashing down in a hurry if Zlaticanin is able to land one of his trademark left hands and stop Garcia's comeback dead in its tracks.

Zlaticanin warned Garcia about the dangers of overlooking him on the call and promised he would knock out his better-known challenger.

It wasn't an idle threat.

Garcia understands there is always a balancing act in boxing between what's now and what's next, but he needs to be 100 percent focused on the man in front of him.

"I definitely have to do this—my first—and this is the main focus. But whenever I get asked about a future fight, I have to answer and have to try, with some logic. But the fight that's most important is in front of me, which is Dejan Zlaticanin," Garcia said.

"It's not going to affect the way I perform. It's not going to affect the way I prepare for this fight. My main focus is January 28, and then after that, we'll move on to whatever the future has for us."

All quotes were obtained firsthand.