"We hope to get a few more fights in by the end of the year, like 3, but it all depends on obviously how my fights go and how I come out of them. Hopefully I get a fight in early summer, like June, and if everything goes well...that fight is supposed to be against Celestino Caballero for the WBA title. If that fight goes through well and it happens this June, and then maybe I can fight again in August or September if I'm not hurt or cut or anything like that, if I win without any damage to myself. But if I get hurt or an injury could happen during a training session, obviously that would postpone fights, but hopefully we get another 2 fights, and maybe even 3 fights by the end of the year," stated undefeated featherweight Mikey Garcia, who talked about his recent victory over Bernabe Concepcion, his future plans, including a showdown with Celestino Caballero, and much more. Check it out!
PC: Congratulations on a hell of a win out there in Puerto Rico against Bernabe Concepcion. How do you feel?
MG: We feel good. I think I performed well and we did what we had to do to win. I fought the right fight and did what my dad and my brother were telling me to do and we got the job done.
PC: Everyone talks about your patience and how poised you are during your fights. You showed great composure in getting Concepcion out of there; probably more patience than normal. Was that something you worked on being that Concepcion is usually so dangerous early in fights?
MG: Well, we always fight with patience. That's just the way I fight and my style of fighting, but for this fight, we were gonna be a little careful, especially in the early rounds. Bernabe is a dangerous fighter. He can land an overhand right or left and really put you down, so we had to be careful with that in this fight. He did throw that overhand right a couple of times. I was able to make him miss and block it a couple of times, but he was looking for it. He was a dangerous fighter and coming into the fight, he really didn't have anything to lose and everything to gain. He was given an opportunity to take that spot and challenge for a world title if he were to beat me and he jumped at the opportunity. That's why we had to be a little more careful during the early rounds more so than other fights. But we knew eventually we were gonna turn it up a little more and put some combinations together and hopefully we were gonna stop him, and we did.
PC: How do you feel you have grown from the Matt Remillard fight on HBO to the Concepcion fight?
MG: I think, most of all, I'm the same fighter, but I have gained a little more experience now. In the Remillard fight, my dad and brother were asking me to bring it up another notch and I wasn't doing it yet when they asked me to because I felt like I needed a couple of more rounds to actually bring it to Matt and get the stoppage. In this fight, as soon as they told me it was time to go, in the next round, I did and I put it on him and got the stoppage. So I'm getting a little more confidence in them telling me what to do and in myself. I'm growing a little more confident now to trust my skills and trust my abilities that I can actually do more than what I was able to do early in my career.
PC: You got some good work in against Bernabe, who is a very durable fighter. In what round did you start to feel this fight was going to go your way and that you could possibly stop him?
MG: In the early rounds, the 2nd or 3rd, I started to feel out the distance and I was using my jab and my straight right. I knew at that moment that if I kept him at that distance, I was going to control the fight all night long. He wasn't connecting with his punches. I was able to see his overhand right and make him miss. I was able to avoid those left hooks and right hands, so I felt that I could control the fight all 10 rounds. I noticed that in the 2nd or 3rd round and knew what I could do. But somewhere in the 5th or 6th round, I kinda noticed him get a little discouraged or maybe even giving up a little. I think in the 6th round, I had him against one of the neutral corners and I was landing some punches. I wasn't hurting him to the point where he was going to be out, but it seemed like he was ready to take a knee. I didn't want to go out there and try to throw so many punches and not really hurt the guy. I only do that when I see my opponent hurt and that's when I go for the stoppage. I noticed that he kinda maybe wanted to go already, but he wasn't hurt. He wasn't hurt, it was just him kind of giving up on the fight. Then after that, my brother told me, "Come on, Mikey, he is ready to go. He don't want to be in there no more. You gotta know that. Don't you see that?" I said, "Yeah, I saw that." He said, "Well, come on in this round; put it on him." And then the next round, I landed that right hand that actually did hurt him and that's when I went for the kill and got the stoppage.
PC: It's crazy you say that because I texted a friend of mine that I thought Concepcion was about to take a knee and that he didn't have no more than 2 rounds left during that moment you just described. I can tell he was wilting.
MG: Yeah, I saw that in the 6th round, he kinda wanted to take a knee or something like that, but I wasn't gonna jump on him yet because he wasn't hurt. But mentally, he was breaking down and already kind of giving up. But I didn't want to risk running in and then he throws this wild right hand and catches me and drops me, and then that would give him another boost in confidence or something. I didn't want to do that. But in the next round, I landed that right hand that actually hurt him and then I did go for the knockout or the stoppage and I got it.
PC: Whether it be on HBO or Showtime, they really pump you as the next big thing. Do you feel any pressure to look a certain way during your fights because of the praise?
MG: I just treat it like another fight in the ring. The ring is square, with 4 ropes and 4 corners, and that's all that matters. It's always nice to hear the networks and the different reporters and media talk good about me and say good things about me and expect a lot, but I don't let that get into my game plan or my fight plan. I don't feel any pressure by that. I don't feel any pressure in the ring on fight night. I would obviously like to keep fighting on the networks Showtime and HBO because those are the networks where people see you and recognize you and give you the credit for your talent. I've been fighting on there for quite some time, but I don't let that put pressure on me or interfere with my performance or things like that.
PC: How active would you like to be this year? Would you like to fight 3 or more times like you did in 2011?
MG: We hope to get a few more fights in by the end of the year, like 3, but it all depends on obviously how my fights go and how I come out of them. Hopefully I get a fight in early summer, like June, and if everything goes well...that fight is supposed to be against Celestino Caballero for the WBA title. If that fight goes through well and it happens this June, and then maybe I can fight again in August or September if I'm not hurt or cut or anything like that, if I win without any damage to myself. But if I get hurt or an injury could happen during a training session, obviously that would postpone fights, but hopefully we get another 2 fights, and maybe even 3 fights by the end of the year.
PC: Are you comfortable at featherweight or can we expect a move up in the near future?
MG: I want to stay in the featherweight division. I want to stay here for as long as I can. If I grow some this year and I outgrow the division, then I would move up, but I plan on staying here as long as I can. It's not uncomfortable to make featherweight and that's why we want to stay here first; win a title here and the day that I can't make the limit, I will have to move up.
PC: What did you think of the JuanMa/Salido fight and do you think JuanMa has already seen his better days?
MG: That became a war and in the beginning, Juan was moving around and staying away from the pressure, but eventually he had to fight. Salido made him fight. Lopez wanted to get revenge for his last loss to Salido and he ended up fighting toe to toe. That was a very good fight for the fans and for everybody that was watching it, but I think it was a mistake on JuanMa's part to slug it out once again with Salido, and we saw the consequences of him doing that because he ended up getting knocked out again. He did that this time, but maybe he was motivated to get that revenge. He dropped Salido and I'm sure his confidence went up and he felt like he could do it, he could stop him. That was really the wrong game plan because that fell right into Salido's game plan and style. So maybe for another fight, he won't do that because it will be a different opponent and maybe he can continue fighting maybe at 130 pounds or something. But he has to fight the right fights and get his confidence back up and change his style a little bit. He should continue fighting, but if he continues to brawl and take shots like that, he's probably gonna end up getting hurt again at 126 or 130. That's not helping him. He's done it in his last few fights and it's not helping him.
PC: Puerto Rico has some of the most passionate boxing fans in the world. What was it like fighting out there and how did they treat you?
MG: It was real nice. The crowd was very good to me, they responded very well to me, they congratulated me, and they welcomed me. They were good people. Even a couple of days after the fight, I would be walking around the beach or at the store or around the hotel and they would come take pictures with me and shake hands. We went to the rain forest and we were walking on the trails and some people recognized me and asked to take pictures. It was just a real good experience and real good people. I didn't get any negative feedback from them or anything. I liked it a lot and I would go back. It's a very beautiful place to be and I would definitely go back.
PC: Congratulations again on the win. I appreciate your time my man. Is there anything else you want to say before I let you go?
MG: I just want to thank everybody for watching and everybody for the support. I appreciate it. I got a lot of comments on my social networks and I wanna thank everybody for watching me and supporting me, especially the fans, and I just hope to keep doing it and pleasing the fans.
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]