Lightweight champ Mikey Garcia looks forward to facing winner of Saturday's Linares-Crolla II
Saturday's WBA lightweight title rematch between Jorge Linares and Anthony Crolla in Manchester, England, will be watched with interest by many, not the least of which will be Mikey Garcia.
Garcia, the undefeated WBC lightweight champ who is coming off a thunderous knockout of previously undefeated champion Dejan Zlaticanin in January, has been tabbed as a guest analyst by Showtime, which will air the Linares-Crolla fight in the U.S. starting at 6 p.m. ET on Saturday. Showtime will be doing the broadcast from its studios in New York.
Garcia's stake in the fight comes from the fact that the World Boxing Council has ordered that the winner face Garcia to unify the titles.
The 31-year-old Linares (41-3, 27 KOs), born in Venezuela but now living in Japan, has not lost in five years and defeated Crolla (31-5-3, 13 KOs) by unanimous decision last September, also in Manchester, which is Crolla's hometown.
Which of the two fighters would Garcia (36-0, 30 KOs) prefer? It really doesn't matter, he says.
"If Linares wins, I think that would be a big fight for us because he has held titles in three divisions just like myself," Garcia said. "He's been in there with some of the best, so it would be a great matchup.
"If Crolla wins it, and if I go out to the UK, it will be a great show. If he comes here to the states, he brings a lot of support. UK fans are great, they support their fighters and I'm sure it will be a huge show here also. So I wouldn't mind fighting either one of them. I think both fights would be great for me, and for boxing."
Garcia believes Linares-Crolla II will be a competitive fight but perhaps a bit less action-packed than the first.
Anthony Crolla, right, and Jorge Linares exchange punches during their first fight last September. Photo by Ben Hoskins/Getty Images)
"Now that both fighters know each other, they're going to respect each other a little more, and they're going to try to make some adjustments," Garcia explained. "Linares is a fast-handed, combination fighter with power; Crolla, I would think, is going to try to box, and not stay inside waiting for those counters from Linares. A little less action-packed, maybe a little more of a chess match, but I still feel Linares is going to take the win once again."
Garcia said he would prefer his matchup with the winner be made as quickly as possible after this fight, but knows it depends on how Linares and Crolla come out of it.
"If they're not banged up with injuries or cuts, then we could possible do it right away," he said. "But if they need time to recover and the fight would be scheduled for the end of this year, well, I don't want to wait another nine months without a fight. I'd probably take a fight between then and now. But I'm hoping these guys come out of this fight clean, and we can start negotiating soon after."
Garcia, who finally got released by Top Rank after a few years of legal wrangling that kept him inactive, said he remains a free agent.
"Still doing it on my own. I've had offers from just about everybody," he said. "But I'm keeping my options open. I'm working alongside Showtime, and with Linares and Crolla fighting on Showtime, I think it could help me get the winner of this next fight. It's a little easier because the WBC has ordered the fight. So there's no need for me to sign a deal with anybody just yet, when I can get these fights on my own."
(Photo at top of Mikey Garcia, left, and his brother and trainer Robert Garcia celebrating after Mikey knocked out Dejan Zlaticanin in January by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)