Former world titleholder Mikey Garcia picked the most low-key way to announce his retirement from boxing.
The 34-year-old promotional free agent from Ventura, Calif. updated his Instagram account description to state that he is a “retired world champ” in the featherweight, junior lightweight, lightweight and junior welterweight divisions.
A text message to his trainer and older brother Robert Garcia, who is in England training former Anthony Joshua, was not responded to by the time of publication. A source at Matchroom Boxing, the promotion Garcia most recently fought for, says that the retirement would appear to be official.
Garcia (40-2, 30 knockouts) leaves behind a career that may garner consideration for the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He turned pro in 2006 and won his first world title in 2013, defeating Orlando Salido by technical decision, but lost the belt after missing weight for his first defense against Juan Manuel Lopez.
He moved up in weight and defeated Roman Martinez by eighth round knockout to win the WBO junior lightweight title, but saw his career slowed due to a promotional dispute with Top Rank. He missed most of 2014 and all of 2015 before returning in the second half of 2016 on a Premier Boxing Champions card in Brooklyn, defeating Elio Rojas by fifth round stoppage.
He won the WBC lightweight title with a highlight reel knockout of Dejan Zlaticanin in 2017 and then registered his highest profile title win with a one-sided decision over Adrien Broner on a Showtime pay-per-view.
He earned his fourth world title in 2018 with a decision win over Sergey Lipinets to pick up the IBF junior welterweight belt, and then returned to 135 pounds to unify the lightweight title, defeating Robert Easter Jr. by unanimous decision to annex the IBF lightweight belt.
His career began to fall apart in 2019 after he stepped up to 147 pounds, losing a one-sided fight to the larger, busier Errol Spence Jr. for the IBF welterweight title. He’d become a part-time fighter afterwards, winning against a faded Jessie Vargas in 2020 and then losing a majority decision to the unheralded Sandor Martin in October of 2021 in what may have been his final fight.
A much-discussed super fight with Manny Pacquiao never materialized as Pacquiao walked away from the sport to pursue political aspirations.
–ringtv.com
