By Ryan Burton

Robert Garcia will be in his familiar role as trainer for the biggest fight of his brother Mikey's career (24-0) on Saturday.  The younger Garcia brother faces fellow undefeated prospect Matt Remillard ( 23-0) in Atlantic City.  The fight is televised by HBO as the co-feature to the Yuriorkis Gamboa versus Jorge Solis main event. 

The Oxnard, California based trainer told BoxingScene that his brother had a great camp with the type of sparring partners that will have him perfectly prepared for his first HBO appearance. 

"Mikey had great sparring partners.  I think Carney Bowman was a hell of a sparring partner and has a similar style to Matt Remillard.  We also had Francisco Contreras who is 16-0 with 13 knockouts.  We had two other local kids from Riverside (California) in camp as well."

 

Robert feels Remillard is the perfect measuring stick for his brother at this point in his career.  The younger Garcia is only 23 years old and a high profile win on HBO is the type of win that could propel him to higher profile fights. 

"To become a world champion Mikey has to go through the Matt Remillard's of boxing.  You have to beat those types of fighters.  If he can't beat Matt Remillard then he can't be a world champion.  We know we are in a tough fight but Mikey trained hard for it and we think he is ready for it," Robert Garcia told BoxingScene.

 

If Mikey comes out of this fight with the victory his older brother feels he will be ready for a title shot in his next fight.  The featherweight division is loaded with fighters such as Yuriorkis Gamboa, Juan Manuel Lopez, Chris John, and Celestino Caballero just to name a few.  Robert feels that a win over Remillard would put Mikey in position to face anyone of the champions in the division.  "I think Mike is ready for a title shot now.  I think he is not only physically ready as a boxer but mentally he already has it in his head that he wants to fight the world champions.  I know Arum has already mentioned him fighting Gamboa and Lopez.  I think after this fight if everything goes the way we think it will go that he will be ready to step up to prove to the world that he is ready for those type of guys.  He has beaten quality fighters very convincingly in his last couple of fights."

 

Garcia knows that there are a lot of doubters that feel his brother is still too young and too green for the upper echelon of the featherweight division.  He feels that tomorrow night's showcase fight on HBO will prove the doubters wrong. Team Garcia is very hopeful that Mikey's next fight will be for a title.  If it doesn't work out that way Robert wants his brother to stay busy but he feels that Mikey should only have one more fight at the very most before challenging for a title. 

"This fight with Remillard will prove to everybody in boxing that he is ready for the Gamboas and Lopez's of the world.  There has also been talk of him fight (WBA regular champion) Jonathan Barros of Argentina as well.  Hopefully his next fight is for a title and if not that fight then hopefully after this fight he just has one more fight before a fight for the title. (His manager) Cameron (Dunkin) told me that his next fight will probably be on the Margarito Cotto undercard for a title.  Hopefully it is."

 

Garcia finished up by wanting to thank the fans and hopes that they will all tune in tomorrow as his brother makes his HBO debut.

 

Send questions or comments to ringsidewriter@gmail.com