By Miguel Rivera
Next week, World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman will hold a meeting with the current lightweight world champion of the organization, Mikey Garcia, to discuss the future of the green and gold belt at 135 pounds.
Garcia has not made a defense of the title since July of last year, when he decisioned Robert Easter in a unification encounter.
Last month, Garcia (39-1, 30 KOs) suffered the first defeat of his pro career when he was dominated over twelve rounds by IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence before a crowd of over 40,000 fans at AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, in Texas.
The fight generated a lot of expectation but it was not as spectacular as had been anticipated by experts and fighters alike.
Mikey won the WBC lightweight title in January 2017 with a brutal knockout of Dejan Zlaticanin, but only exposed the belt once against Robert Easter.
For his three fights since, then have been at super lightweight and even welterweight.
Sulaiman told ESPN Deportes that he plans to ask the Californian of Mexican blood if he intends to keep the belt or vacate it to continue his career at 140 pounds.
After beating Zlaticanin, he dominated Adrien Broner over twelve rounds at junior welterweight. And then he continued to fight at the weight by winning a twelve round decision over Sergey Lipinets to capture the IBF title at 140-pounds.
When the IBF ordered Garcia to make a mandatory defense, he dropped back to 135 for the unification with Easter, who had the IBF's title in that weight class.
And then the IBF ordered him to make a mandatory defense, so he vacated that title and moved up by two weight classes for the contest with Spence.
Should Garcia remain at 135, he will have to make a mandatory defense against Olympic gold medal winner Luke Campbell. But very few expect him to stay at 135 - and most believe he's going to return to 140.