On facing Mikey Garcia later this year
“Definitely I want that fight. I feel like that’s the best fight available for me right now with Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia fighting each other in September. Keith Thurman still has to return and get a tune-up. So right now that’s the best fight for me. He’s daring to be great. He wants to be great, so he’s gonna move up and try to dethrone me. But it’s not gonna happen.”
“He would be pound-for-pound number one if he can beat me, but it’s not gonna happen. I’m a 147-pounder, he’s a 135-pounder. They’ve got weight classes for a reason. It will be a challenging fight because he’s technically good, he has great skills, but I see myself winning.”
“I don’t really see anything that concerns me. He’s technically good, I’m technically sound, too. I have speed, I have power. I don’t see him hurting me at 147. I just see me winning the fight, period.”
On facing the Porter-Garcia winner
“It should happen. I think it’s definitely gonna happen next year. But with Shawn Porter and with Danny Garcia, they always say my name when they have a fight coming up. When they don’t have a fight coming up, they don’t say my name. When Shawn didn’t have a fight coming up, he said he’s not looking to fight me, I’m not on his radar at all. Now he has a fight,now he wants to fight me. They say it every time. After they fight each other, whoever wins, it’s a unification fight, and I think it’s definitely gonna happen next year, because they don’t have nobody else to fight. Keith Thurman’s still gotta have his tune-ups and still has to come back, so, I mean, we both gotta fight each other.”