Mikey Garcia prepares for fight with Dejan Zlaticanin after taking on boxing’s money men

Mikey Garcia, the son of Ventura County strawberry pickers, spent years observing others who yielded to authority and toiled humbly in their positions.

On Saturday night Garcia (35-0, 29 knockouts) attempts to become a three-division world champion when he meets World Boxing Council lightweight champion Dejan Zlaticanin (22-0, 15 KOs) at MGM Grand.

Garcia knows that what he does in the ring will be mostly responsible for building his popularity.

But it’s his deeply principled stances that make Garcia a rarity in a sport littered by athletes who’ve been trampled by better educated, more sophisticated money men.

“Boxing is for the poor man,” Garcia, 29, said. “A lot of people don’t know what’s going on, but I’ve been able to see it first-hand, and if I can speak out on the behalf of fighters going through problems, I will, because … it’s important to create awareness. Everyone should speak up. Because if people are aware, maybe there can be change.”

After Garcia’s successful January 2014 super-featherweight title defense, he didn’t agree with how his veteran promoter Bob Arum and his company Top Rank interpreted Garcia’s contract while seeking to lock him into future fights.

“I’ve been able to not only be a fighter, but a thinking fighter, where I can use my insight into the business and politics of the sport to make my decisions,” Garcia said. “I’ve seen what other handlers and managers have done to fighters.”

One of the wronged was his older brother Robert Garcia, a trainer and former title fighter. The elder Garcia said he once was on the hook to pay his manager 33% of his purses.

Mikey Garcia left the sport for 30 months because of his lawsuit.

“About a year into the litigation, there was no end in sight. No court date, no mediation. I offered to buy my way out. They replied, ‘No, that’s not an option,’ and I said, ‘That’s the last time I’ll attempt [to settle]. Now, we’re going to step on the gas and go full speed,’ ” Garcia said.

During this period Garcia used his past purse money to flip homes in Riverside County, turning profits, and intent on winning the court fight against Arum, who has promoted Muhammad Ali and Manny Pacquiao.

“Mikey has always been like that, the one who always had to win,” Robert Garcia said. “He was born 13 years after me …My mom, at age 37, was so embarrassed she was pregnant with him, she covered her belly with big jackets and blankets while working the strawberry fields for five months. And the first time we [three older siblings] knew she was pregnant was when Mikey was born.

“Mikey grew up playing with his three nephews and he never allowed them to beat him or even choose what game they’d play. He was stubborn; it had to be his way. So when he made the decision to leave Top Rank, even if there was some miscommunication along the way, he said, ‘No, I’m too deep into it now, I’ll just go all the way.’ ”

An important preliminary ruling was favorable to Mikey Garcia and Top Rank backed down, freeing him and prompting Garcia to post “another knockout to my record” on his Instagram account.

He won a comeback fight in Brooklyn in July to gain the shot at Zlaticanin.

“I always had faith. I believed in my [legal] argument,” Garcia said. “You had this little Mexican kid with only a two-year degree in college going against this corporation and a promoter who’s been here so long … and they threw in the towel. Huge victory, bigger than winning a title.”

Garcia has now taken to being an outspoken advocate for better pay and protections for strawberry pickers in Oxnard. His father, Eduardo, was deported back to Mexico six times while working those fields.

“He does this for all of us because he’s seen it. I’m proud of him,” Mikey’s mother, Virginia Garcia, said in Spanish. “He’s done the right thing. Don’t let them humiliate you.”

Now, Garcia, in his co-main event Saturday to the Carl Frampton-Leo Santa Cruz featherweight title rematch, is striving to capture another belt. Garcia also hopes to get either title-unifying bouts or showdowns against Arum’s best fighters Terence Crawford and Vasyl Lomachenko.

“Mikey, with the actions he’s taken, will win fans’ support,” Robert Garcia said. “He’s born American, and while it can be hard for others like that, like [Oscar] De La Hoya, to win over the real Mexican fans, they’ll love him because of the way he thinks.”

Saturday’s fight

Who: Carl Frampton, Northern Ireland, (23-0, 14 KOs) vs. Leo Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, (32-1-1, 18 KOs) for Frampton’s World Boxing Assn. featherweight belt.

When: Saturday, 7 p.m.

Where: MGM Grand, Las Vegas.

Television: Showtime.

Tickets: $54-$504, at www.AXS.com

Undercard: Dejan Zlaticanin (22-0, 15 KOs), Montenegro, vs. Mikey Garcia, Riverside, (35-0, 29 KOs) for Zlaticanin’s World Boxing Council lightweight belt; Lee Selby (23-1, 8 KOs) vs. Jonathan Victor Barros (41-4-1, 22 KOs) for Selby’s International Boxing Federation featherweight belt.

lance.pugmire@latimes.com

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