WBC Prez Eager To Sanction Mikey Garcia vs. Jorge Linares

By Miguel Rivera

World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman is very eager to sanction a fight between WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia (36-0, 30 KO's) and WBA champion Jorge Linares (42-3, 27 KO's).

Linares is still the WBC's "champion in recess" at 135-pounds. He was stripped of the title last year after suffering an injury that prevented him from defending his belt against Dejan Zlaticanin.

Zlaticanin eventually captured the vacant belt, and then lost the title when he was knocked out cold in January by Garcia.

 Both boxers are also capable of making voluntary defenses for now, but eventually the WBC will order the two of them to face each other - unless one of them abandons the WBC title.

"There would be no problem to allow the fight to take place, in fact they have an optional fight if they want, but it seems that they intend to do the unification fight directly. Both are champions of the World Boxing Council, so it would be sensational if they could give the fans and the world of boxing this great fight - which currently is one of the most anticipated," Sulaiman told ESPN Deportes.

"Mikey and Jorge is one of the most anticipated fights, a clash of interesting styles, we will see if it can happen in the summer or when. The truth is, that it is a fight that the boxing world wants and hopefully it's not done too late to avoid ending up like other fights that people waited a long time for."

Last month in Manchester, Linares retained his WBA title with a dominating twelve round unanimous decision in the rematch with Anthony Crolla. Now he intends to rest with his family before exploring his fight options.

Garcia would like to fight at least three times this year and hopes to fight again in June if possible.