This past July at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Mikey Garcia (39-0, 30 KOs) won a lopsided twelve round unanimous decision over Robert Easter to unify the WBC, IBF lightweight world titles.
Easter, who held the IBF title, had already owed a mandatory world title defense to number one contender Richard Commey (27-2, 24 KOs).
Commey had lost a close twelve round split decision to Easter in September of 2016. Easter was down in the eight round of that bout.
Commey stayed busy last month, when he stopped Yardley Armenta Cruz (24-11, 14 KOs) on the Andre Berto-Devon Alexander undercard at the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.
With his victory, the obligation of the IBF's mandatory defense is now on Garcia's shoulders.
The IBF has ordered him to reach a deal with Commey by August 30th.
Because the two sides were unable to reach an agreement, the sanctioning body set down a purse bid for September 25 at 12 PM at their offices in Springfield, New Jersey.
The last time the IBF pressed Garcia to make a mandatory defense, he walked away from the title.
Earlier this year, he captured the IBF's junior welterweight title with a win over Sergey Lipinets. He was then ordered by the sanctioning body to make a mandatory defense against Ivan Baranchyk.
While he initially agreed to face Baranchyk, he then backed away from that decision by vacating the belt and went back down to 135 for a more lucrative opportunity with Easter.
At the moment, Garcia is discussing the idea of moving up by two weight divisions to challenge IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence. The fight was initially being targeted for a December date, but it now appears the contest is likely getting pushed over to the first quarter of 2019.
