Mikey Garcia Reveals Why He Vacated IBF Lightweight Title

Mikey Garcia reveals the reason for why he vacated the IBF lightweight title.

The four-division world champion recently surrendered the IBF belt as the governing body was set to hold a purse bid between Garcia and mandatory challenger Richard Commey. Garcia explained to ESPN that the reason for him vacating was that he did not feel a fight against Commey was one that attracted him, but with the IBF demanding the title fight happen in the coming months after Garcia won the belt in late July.

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

In regards to the aforementioned “bigger fights,” Garcia is referring to a potential clash with IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. Such a fight had been on Garcia’s mind for months and initially, the two appear headed for a fight in December. After weeks of seemingly no update on negotiations, Ring TV would later go on to report that he and Spence are close to signing a deal to fight for the IBF welterweight title in early 2019.

As far as Garcia’s status as the WBC lightweight champion, he is still the titleholder despite him having a mandatory challenger in Luke Campbell. Garcia won the WBC lightweight title in January 2017, but has only defended the title once which was the WBC/IBF lightweight unification against Robert Easter Jr. this past summer.