By Miguel Rivera
Dejan Zlaticanin announced on social media that he's scheduled to defend his World Boxing Council lightweight title against former two-division world champion Mikey Garcia on January 28th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The fight is going to be the co-featured attraction to the featherweight rematch between Carl Frampton and Leo Santa Cruz.
Garcia is confident that there will be no problem in making the lightweight limit of 135-pounds. The former world champion at featherweight and super featherweight was pushing for the fight with Zlaticanin.
"I believe lightweight will be a good division for me. Nothing is confirmed yet, but we are waiting for Showtime, Lou DiBella and Al Haymon confirm things to me," Garcia told ESPN Deportes.
Zlaticanin has a record of 22-0 and 15 knockouts, and against Garcia he would be making the first defense of the belt he won against Franklin Mamani in June, while Mikey (35-0, 29 KOs) hit the ring back in July when he knocked out former champion Elio Rojas in five rounds.
Garcia's win over Rojas snapped more than a two year layoff. Garcia was out of the ring for a long time due to an ongoing legal battle with former promoter Top Rank. The two sides settled their dispute earlier this year.
The winner of Zlaticanin and Garcia, per the WBC's recent order, would have to face mandatory challenger Jorge Linares next year. Linares is currently dealing with a hand injury suffered in his recent WBA lightweight world title win over Anthony Crolla. There is a rematch clause, so Linares will have to face Crolla for a second time on a date in early 2017.
