WBC orders Linares-Garcia

The WBC has officially ordered its lightweight ‘diamond’ champion Jorge Linares (43-3, 27 KOs) to take on its world titleholder Mikey Garcia (37-0, 30 KOs), in a bout that would have both titles on the line, as reported by Sky Sports.

Both camps are reportedly already in contact with one another but it remains to be seen if Garcia, after moving up to junior welterweight to face Adrien Broner in July, intends to move back down to compete at lightweight going forward. He did, after all, just recently call out Miguel Cotto for a fight at 154lbs.

That aside, Garcia’s older brother and trainer, Robert, recently mentioned that a potential fight with Linares could be in the cards for February or March, but that they were looking at towards a December fight, with Miguel Cotto or Robert Easter Jr. as potential options. A Cotto fight is highly unlikely, and hasn’t been taken seriously by Cotto’s team, so I wouldn’t exactly hold my breath waiting on that one.

Meanwhile Linares is just coming off a split decision win over Luke Campbell a couple of weeks ago in a fight where he was in control early, but had Campbell making a solid stand after being dropped to force razor thin scorecards. Linares almost certainly won’t be fighting again this year.