By Steve Kim
When WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko (8-1, 6 KOs) - who defends his belt against Miguel Marriaga on August 5th at the Microsoft Theater at L.A. Live on August 5th - was asked what fights he most yearns for. He answered to a group of reporters: Mikey Garcia and Jorge Linares, who are both lightweight belt-holders.
So will this upcoming bout, which will be televised on ESPN, be his swan song at 130-pounds?
''We will see if anything else is possible because we've been told that all the fighters at 130-pounds weren't lined up or didn't have the same schedule or something that didn't stack up with the date," said Egis Klimas, the manager for Lomachenko, who should everything go well versus Marriaga that he will return in December.
"Top Rank has a new program(on ESPN) and already has planned a date for his next date," continued Klimas, who would like to see if any of the other major belt-holders in the division will want to unify.
"So we have at least a plan to bring him back in the ring. So my thing is if we can get a good fight at 130-pounds, why not? But if nothing is on the horizon we're not going to be thinking twice. We're going to move to 135 and see who can be available."
Garcia, who currently holds the WBC 135-pound title faces Adrien Broner in a junior welterweight bout on July 29th at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn. In several recent interviews, Garcia had stated that he plans to return to the lightweight division regardless of the outcome of the Broner bout.
While it looks like Linares, the WBA lightweight champion, will be returning on September 23rd. The WBC may actually order Garcia and Linares to fight each other, because Linares is their "champion in recess."
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.