By Miguel Rivera
Three division world champion Mikey Garcia has ruled out the possibility of facing Jorge Linares in a unification before the end of 2017 - but said he has the possibility of finding him in the first quarter of 2018.
Garcia revealed that in the next few weeks he will meet with Showtime and Al Haymon to find out what's next for his career.
In his last fight, Garcia moved up to the junior welterweight division and dominated four division champion Adrien Broner over twelve rounds to win a unanimous decision.
Garcia (37-0, 30KOs) was hoping to stake his WBC lightweight title against Linares, who holds the WBA title. Linares is also the WBC's champion in recess at the weight. He initially was stripped of the belt due to injury, and Garcia captured the the title earlier this year with a vicious knockout of Dejan Zlaticanin.
But Linares is scheduled to face Olympic gold medal winner Luke Campbell on September 23 in Los Angeles. Garcia does not believe Linares will be able to make a quick enough turnaround for a year-end fight.
"Linares is going to fight on September 23, and unless he achieves a quick win there - I will not have an opportunity to face him. I'm going to have to catch a fight at the end of the year and then we can face him for him next year," Garcia said to ESPN Deportes.
Garcia is not sure if he's going to drop back to the lightweight division to make a defense of his title or continue forward at the junior welterweight division by facing a solid opponent at 140-pounds.
"Let's see what's in it for me. I think we can do a fight later this year. We'll see which is better, if we do a title defense at 135 pounds or we're going back at 140 pounds. I'm sure we will make the best decision for my career and for the fans," Garcia said.