Mikey Garcia Willing To Travel To UK To Fight Flanagan Next

By Keith Idec

If Mikey Garcia gets by former featherweight champ Elio Rojas in his comeback bout Saturday night, he’ll have his passport ready for his next fight.

Garcia, a heavy favorite over Rojas, has targeted unbeaten WBO lightweight title-holder Terry Flanagan for his following fight. The former WBO featherweight and WBO super featherweight champion also is willing to travel to England, Flanagan’s homeland, to challenge him for that 135-pound championship.

“Hopefully we can get that fight,” Garcia told BoxingScene.com. “I really want that third WBO title.”

The 27-year-old Flanagan (31-0, 12 KOs) most recently dominated 42-year-old South African Mzonke Fana (38-10, 16 KOs) in a 12-round fight Flanagan won by unanimous decision July 16 in Cardiff, Wales. Flanagan, a southpaw from Manchester who has made three defenses of the title he won last July 11, has not fought outside of the United Kingdom since he turned pro 7½ years ago.

“I wouldn’t mind going out there,” Garcia said. “I would be ready. To me, it’s just another ring, four corners and four ropes.”

Garcia, 28, hasn’t fought in 2½ years, largely due to a contract dispute with former promoter Top Rank Inc. He hasn’t signed with influential adviser Al Haymon, but Garcia (34-0, 28 KOs) will fight on a Premier Boxing Champions card Saturday night against the Dominican Republic’s Rojas (24-2, 14 KOs) in a 10-round, 140-pound bout at Barclays Center in Brooklyn (Showtime; 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT).

Garcia, of Riverside, California, plans to move down from 140 pounds to 135 for his next fight, preferably against Flanagan.

“It’s definitely a great fight,” Garcia said. “He’s undefeated, I’m undefeated, I’m a former champion, he’s a current champion. He’s super-talented and he has all the confidence in the world right now because he’s a champion. So I would just have to look at a few clips, a few rounds, and make the right adjustments in training camp to prepare myself. But I don’t think I would have a problem with him. I have plenty of experience and I’ve fought just about everybody else I could to prepare me for these kinds of fights.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.