By Ryan Burton

BoxingScene.com recently caught up with WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares (43-3) who faces Mercito Gesta (31-1-2) at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif. on Saturday night.

The fight tops a HBO doubleheader with Lucas Matthysse facing Tewa Kiram in the co-feature bout.

The 32-year-old Linares had hoped to faced WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia - who had been ordered by the sanctioning body to face Linares, who is their champion in recess - but Garcia opted to stay at 140 pounds and face IBF champion Sergey Lipinets before facing Linares. 

Garcia vs. Lipinets was scheduled to take place on February 10th but Lipinets injured his hand in training camp and the bout was rescheduled for March 10th.

"Those things happen," said Linares to BoxingScene.com. "You never know what can happen in training camp. It is bad for Mikey Garcia but I think that there will be a lot of opportunities for me after this fight. Maybe Lomachenko. Maybe Mikey Garcia at 135 or 140 but right now I need to stay focused on Saturday and then the big fights will be coming up."

Linares would be perfectly content facing Vasyl Lomachenko or Garcia in his next ring appearance and said that he doesn't have a preference.  When asked what his dream scenario would look like, the Venezuelan admitted that he would rather face Lomachenko first and then face Garcia in a higher weight class.

"Honestly I don't really have a preference. As long as I train well then it will be good. Lomachenko is an amazing fighter. He is smaller than me and younger than me. He is an Olympic champion and a professional champion. Mikey is really good too. I think he is one of the best at 135 or 140. I am ready for either one of them," Garcia said.

"I would love to fight Lomachenko first and then Mikey Garcia at 140 because I was thinking of doing one or two more fights at 135 and then go on to 140 where I can fight Garcia."

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