Mikey Garcia was in disbelief on Saturday night moments after losing a 10 round majority decision to Sandor Martin at the Chukchansi Park, Fresno, California. Mikey looked miserable after the fight, telling the 8,000 fans that he should have had his hand raised and that Martin was just “running around a lot.”
To the fans on social media, they overwhelmingly had Martin, 28, winning the fight with his clever boxing, airtight defense, and his counter punching of Mikey.
Martin made it difficult for Garcia to land much of anything during the right.
Even when Martin was fighting with his back against the ropes, he did a bang-up job of ducking Mikey’s shots.
The talented former four-division world champion Mikey (40-2, 30 KOs) had trouble against the EBU light welterweight champion Martin (39-2, 13 KOs) from the word go in the first round, with him getting beaten to the punch but the Spaniard and thoroughly dominated.
Mikey: “I thought I was ahead”
“I thought it was a good fight. He fought a very good fight and was boxing,” said Mikey Garcia after the fight when interviewed by DAZN. “I thought I did what was necessary to close the gap, putting the pressure and looking for the fight.
“He was the one moving around, running around a lot. He was able to counter a few times, but I was the one actively looking for the fight.
“I thought I was ahead on the cards. It is what it is. That’s why there’s three judges and they decided he was the one winning the fight.
“No, I’ve been training and I’ve been fine,” Mikey said when asked if his 20-month layoff had an impact on his performance tonight.
“I’m not bruised up, he didn’t put a beating on me. It was a good fight, a competitive fight. I thought I was winning the fight in a close match-up, but like I said, the judges saw it the other way around.
“No, not at all. I knew he was a very good boxer. I’ve seen some of his films and I know he can box. That’s why I kept being the aggressor coming forward, but I couldn’t be reckless either because he was looking for those counters.
“I still think I did enough to win the rounds because like I said I was being the aggressor looking for the fight. He kept moving around using the ring. The judges thought this time that he was the one in control, and I thought I was the one in control.
“No, I can definitely consider a rematch,” said Mikey. “I think two more rounds will probably be more beneficial. I thought I was coming on a little bit better in the later rounds, but that’s no excuse. That’s the way it is,” said a bitter Mikey in failing to give credit to Martin.
Mickey ruined his career because he’s hard headed and didn’t listen to his people about not taking the Errol Spence fight. Even Errol was telling him they have weight classes for a reason. He was probably advised not to take the Martin fight and take a big money fight against Haney or somebody like that. But hard headed Mickey doesn’t listen. You could say joushua also made the same mistake fighting Alexander instead of waiting for Fury. Nobody cares had he lost the WBO belt not taking the mandatory. So many fighters in boxing history lost out on big fights taking nothing fights.