Mikey Garcia appears to have announced his retirement via an updated Instagram bio that says he’s a “Retired World Champ.”
The 34 year old Garcia (40-2, 30 KO) was a fixture on pound-for-pound lists for years, collecting belts in four different weight classes during a 15 year professional career. He beat Orlando Salido for the WBO featherweight belt in 2013, then knocked out Rocky Martinez less than 10 months later to earn the WBO junior lightweight title.
Garcia earned his first lightweight title in 2017 with a savage 3rd round knockout of Dejan Zlaticanin, then won another lightweight belt in 2018 with a unanimous decision win over Robert Easter Jr. In between, Garcia won the IBF junior welterweight title from Sergey Lipinets by unanimous decision.
Garcia followed up the lightweight unification win by jumping to welterweight to face Errol Spence Jr in 2018. Spence proved far too much for Garcia to handle, winning every round on every card in the first loss of Garcia’s pro career.
Garcia would later call his performance against Spence “horrible,” but stayed at welterweight and went on to a tough decision win over Jessie Vargas in February of 2020. His most recent and apparently final fight came in October of 2021 at a 145 pound catchweight, a shocking majority decision loss to junior welterweight Sandor Martin.
Garcia’s poor showing against heavy underdog Martin raised immediate questions about how or if Garcia might rebuild his career. This social media update seems to indicate that he won’t.
It marks a very understated exit from the sport. Not as dramatic as Manny Pacquiao’s 14 minute farewell video, and not as immediate or definitive as Shawn Porter’s post-fight press conference after his loss to Terence Crawford. But, it appears to be a clear, conclusive statement straight from Mikey Garcia and his team. Best wishes to him in retirement.