The World Boxing Council has issued a new order, which directs WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia (37-0, 30 KOs) and mandatory challenger Jorge Linares (43-3, 27 KOs) to begin negotiations on March 12 - provided the two boxers are victorious in their upcoming fights.

Last year at their annual convention, the WBC ordered the two of them to fight each other.

Linares, who holds the WBA world title at the weight, is the mandatory challenger to Garcia's belt because of his status as the WBC's Diamond champion.

While there were discussions to make a fight between Garcia and Linares, the two sides were unable to reach an agreement.

Garcia finalized a deal to continue at 140-pounds, as the unbeaten boxer is scheduled to challenge IBF junior welterweight champion Sergey Lipinets.

The fight with Lipinets was scheduled for February 10th at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas - but the champion suffered a hand injury and the contest was postponed to March 10th.

The new date was officially announced earlier this week, during a huge press conference, which Showtime staged for the media in New York City.

Should Garcia win, he will have to make a decision on whether or not to remain at 140 or return back to 135 for a fight with Linares.

Garcia started off 2017 with a vicious knockout of Dejan Zlaticanin to capture the WBC title at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. He came back in July, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, with a dominating performance over former four division world champion Adrien Broner. The fight with Broner took also place at the junior welterweight limit of 140-pounds.

Linares stepped on the scale earlier today and had no issues with making weight for tomorrow night's fight. He will make a voluntary defense against once-beaten Mercito Gesta on January 27th in an HBO televised fight from The Forum in Los Angeles, California.