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Linares will target Garcia and Lomachenko if he beats Crolla

Jorge Linares says he wants to take on the best fighters in and around 135 should he win tomorrow on Showtime.

Anthony Crolla Press Conference Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images
Wil Esco is an assistant editor of Bad Left Hook and has been covering boxing for SB Nation since 2014.

WBA lightweight titlist Jorge Linares may only be fighting Anthony Crolla again tomorrow because of a mandated rematch clause, but with another win he plans on going after much bigger fights.

Linares tells ESPN that he’s specifically looking at either unifying titles with Mikey Garcia (who now holds his WBC belt) or a match against Vasyl Lomachenko who has mentioned possibly moving up to lightweight in the near future.

"I would love to fight Mikey Garcia and Lomachenko," Linares said. "Garcia is the fight I really want because he's a very good fighter, a very good champion and, most importantly, he's undefeated. I would have all the motivation to take that undefeated record from him."

Lomachenko, while perhaps not having an undefeated record, is rated among the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world (with a real argument for the #1 spot). A fight between these two flashy boxing stylists would highly intriguing for fight fans...

"He is a very, very good fighter, very fast fighter, very intelligent," Linares said. "But I feel I am faster. He fights with very good angles, but I think I can show things he hasn't seen with my angles and my speed. Hopefully, he goes up to 135 and between Ismael Salas and myself we could prepare a game plan to defeat him.

"Those are fights I see myself winning. Am I capable of beating Mikey Garcia and Vasyl Lomachenko? Right now I can beat both of them, but I have to get my job done on Saturday night."

Linares will enter tomorrow’s fight against Crolla as a favorite but he is fighting on Crolla’s home turf again which may or may not play a role in the outcome. But assuming Linares does beat Crolla, who would you rather see him face next?

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