By Edward Chaykovsky
On January 28th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, WBC lightweight world champion Dejan Zlaticanin (22-0, 15 KOs) will be making his first title defense against former two-division titlist Mikey Garcia (35-0, 29 KOs).
Their fight will be the Showtime televised co-feature to the Carl Frampton vs. Leo Santa Cruz rematch.
Zlaticanin will be putting his belt on the line for the first time since earning a third-round stoppage of Franklin Mamani in June to pick up the vacant title. The 32-year-old put himself in position to fight for the title in his U.S. debut by dominating then unbeaten Ivan Redkach on his way to a third-round TKO. A hard-hitting southpaw, Zlaticanin also has victories over Ricky Burns and Petr Petrov.
Garcia returned from a two and half year layoff in July to dominate former champion Elio Rojas on his way to a fifth-round stoppage in Brooklyn as the co-main event of the first Santa Cruz vs. Frampton fight. Garcia will be looking for his third divisional title after capturing belts at 126 and 130 pounds.
Garicia, even with his inactivity, is widely viewed as the favorite in the contest. Zlaticanin is ready to prove the experts wrong.
“Everyone thinks that Garcia is a pound-for-pound star but I want to tell everyone that I’m going to win this fight. Everything in preparations has been going great. I’ll be 100% ready on January 28. This is the fight of my life. I have to be ready and we’re right on track," Zlaticanin said.
“I came up the hard way, and sometimes I thought I might never get this opportunity. I’ve been in some really tough fights where people gave me no chance to win, but now I’m a world champion."
“When I beat Mikey Garcia that will make me an even bigger star. I think Mikey is a good puncher, and he has good timing, but I can hit him easily and I’m planning to knock him out. Mikey will have a big opponent in front of him. He needs to run around the ring because I’m going to come for him."
