A major upset occurred on October 16th when Spain’s Sandor Martin (39-2) defeated Mikey Garcia (40-2) in Fresno, California in a DAZN streamed main event.
Garcia was listed as a 20-1 favorite by many sportsbooks and very few observers picked the Spaniard to pull off the upset.
One of the few people in the sport that did believe in Martin is Arnold Barboza Sr. – who trains his unbeaten son Arnold Barboza Jr. (26-0). Like Martin, Barboza also campaigns in the super lightweight division.
The 29-year-old Southern California native said that his dad told him that Garcia could be in for a rough night.
“My pops did his homework on him and said he could beat him. He said Mikey hadn’t been in the gym for a while and it was a dangerous fight for him. My pops checks all of the fighters in the division. He will be a tough fight for anyone. I only saw the last 4 rounds but I saw some videos and (Martin) definitely can fight,” Barboza stated.
Barboza is highly ranked by multiple sanctioning bodies and hopes to fight for a world title soon. He currently is waiting for undisputed super lightweight champion Josh Taylor to make his mandatory title defense against Jack Catterall and then make a decision on whether he will move up to 147 pounds and relinquish his titles or continue to face his mandatory challengers.
If Barboza had it his way, he would prefer to welcome unified lightweight champion Teofimo Lopez to the super lightweight division.
“I was telling my pops that Martin could definitely be a name that would interest us. I told Top Rank and my manager Rick (Mirigian) that I really want to fight Teofimo. I want to f— him up. I want a really big fight no matter what,” Barboza explained.
Send questions or comments to ringsidewriter@gmail.com. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ringsidewriter