Ak and Barak wondered where Mikey Garcia’s career goes from here after defeat to Sandor Martin.
Few expected the 33-year-old American to lose against his younger Spanish rival, but Martin was comfortably the better performer.
While Martin’s previous fight came in April 2021, Garcia had not fought since 2019, and Barak Bess suggested that time out of the ring coupled with his advancing years might have held him back.
“It could be a whole bunch of things, maybe gaining weight in between when you fight - an excessive amount of weight in between fights is different at 33 going on 34 than it was back then in 2016,” he said on the DAZN Boxing Show, before suggesting Martin’s own talents made it difficult.
“I said before the fight, he's a mover and he's also left handed. He knows how to box. He knows how to counter punch. And that's what he did. Now, Mike is a counter puncher, but he's also a guy who could knock them down, he knocked down plenty of his fights to get the stoppage. He usually knocks guys down, and I think that's what he was expecting
“I think that it wasn't a good thing to come back after all that time off and do a 10-rounder when you're fighting somebody who can move like that, because you need as many rounds as you can to get to them to break them down to get to that body.
“And that's something that probably was a difference too. But then again, by that 10th round, if there were two more rounds, it doesn't look like it would have been any different.”