By Miguel Rivera
The fight is now back on pace, after the World Boxing Council gave their blessing to Montenegrin Dejan Zlaticanin to make an optional defense of the WBC lightweight world title.
There are ongoing talks for Zlaticanin to make a year-end world title defense against former two-division world champion Mikey Garcia.
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 is hoping that the fight with Zlaticanin will come sooner than later.
According to Garcia, the month of December has been mentioned with Showtime televising the fight.
"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. We'll continue with the discussions and we're now talking about a December fight with Zlaticanin," 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 orders, 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.
