Mikey Garcia's quest for title in fourth class moved to March 10
Garcia, a reigning lightweight world titleholder, was scheduled to challenge junior welterweight world titlist Sergey Lipinets on Feb. 10 in a Showtime-televised main event at the Alamodome in San Antonio, but the card was postponed on Wednesday because Lipinets had suffered a minor hand injury in training.
On Friday, the bout was rescheduled. It will still headline a Showtime card but it will take place on March 10. And while the card will still be in San Antonio, it has been moved to the Freeman Coliseum.
"When we learned that Sergey had a strain in his right hand, I indicated it wasn't a major injury and that we'd be moving as quickly as possible to rescheduled it," Ringstar Sports promoter Richard Schaefer told ESPN. "We had conference calls with the Alamodome but we couldn't work out the date.
"Our best option to reschedule the fight as quickly as possible was to go to the Freeman Coliseum on March 10. We wanted to keep the event in San Antonio, where they have great fight fans. The event was selling like hot cakes at the Alamodome, so I am very happy we were able to keep the fight in San Antonio."
Those holding tickets for the Alamodome will receive priority on a seat exchange for the new venue, Schaefer said.
The rest of the card will move to the new date as well, including the co-feature. That fight, for a vacant junior welterweight world title, is a rematch between Rances Barthelemy (26-0, 13 KOs), 31, a Cuban defector fighting out of Las Vegas, and Kiryl Relikh (21-2, 19 KOs), 28, of Belarus. Barthelemy, a former lightweight and junior lightweight world titleholder, won a controversial decision in their action-packed title eliminator on May 20.
Garcia (37-0, 30 KOs), 29, of Moreno Valley, California, has won world titles at featherweight and junior lightweight and still holds a lightweight belt. With a win, Garcia would become only the third fighter in modern history to win world titles at featherweight, junior lightweight, lightweight and junior welterweight. The others are legends: Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez.
Lipinets (13-0, 10 KOs), 28, a Kazakhstan native fighting out of Beverly Hills, California, won a unanimous decision against Japan's Akihiro Kondo on Nov. 4 to claim a vacant world title - one of the belts vacated by then-undisputed champion Terence Crawford in order to move up in weight. He will be making his first defense against Garcia.
Author: Dan Rafael, ESPN
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