It's been no secret that Mikey Garcia spent a lot of time working with controversial sports figure and SNAC founder Victor Conte in preparation for his fight against Errol Spence Jr.
Although Garcia, the current WBC lightweight champion, has made a habit of moving up and down in weight without much issue and is successful in winning titles from featherweight all the way to junior welterweight, the jump from lightweight to welterweight might be the biggest challenge of them all.
With Garcia attempting a drastic jump from lightweight to welterweight from his last fight to the next, the four-division champion said he went to Conte to help build up his body for the fight. In a recent media conference call, Garcia stated that he spent more than a month working with SNAC and Conte in order to properly build weight so that he can handle the power that Spence carries.
"There was a bid more of a physical change and we needed to make sure that moving up to welterweight would be a good decision by adding weight in the right areas, the right amount of muscle mass. So that's why we did go those five weeks up north at SNAC to work and I wanted to make sure that I gain the weight - the right weight. But we also didn't want to lose the speed, we did not want to lose the reaction time, the explosiveness. And that's what we worked with with Victor Conte. We made a program that could help me to gain a little bit of mass but at the same time, improve my speed, my reaction, my reflexes and all the things that I will use on fight night," Garcia said.
Spence vs. Garcia for the IBF welterweight title will headline a PBC on Fox pay-per-view from AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on March 16. You can check out Garcia's comments in the video at the top of the page.
