By Miguel Rivera
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya is working hard to finalize several big fights for the upcoming year.
One of those fights is a lightweight unification between his fighter, WBA champion Jorge Linares, and promotional free agent Mikey Garcia, who holds the WBC title at 135-pounds.
Garcia (37-0, 30 KOs) had a banner year, as he knocked out Dejan Zlaticanin in brutal fashion in January to capture the WBC title, and moved up to junior welterweight to dominate Adrien Broner over twelve rounds.
For his part, Linares (43-3, 27 KOs) defeated two Brits. First he went to England and dominated Anthony Crolla in their contracted rematch, and then in September he edged out Olympic gold medal winner Luke Campbell in Los Angeles.
As BoxingScene.com had previously reported, Garcia met with Golden Boy Promotions on Wednesday to discuss the Linares fight and the meeting went well between the two sides.
According to De La Hoya, Garcia was offered a 50-50 split of the revenue with no strings attached. There is nothing that would bind Garcia to Golden Boy, and De La Hoya has no issue if Garcia wants his adviser, Al Haymon, involved with the event.
"I was down there with Linares in Colombia, and he feels 1,000 percent confident that he can beat Mikey Garcia," De La Hoya told ESPN Deportes.
"I'm letting everyone know that we are serious about ** the fight. No interim fights, straight to this fight. We want the fight to happen in the first quarter of next year. Linares is all in. They're both world champions. My message to Mikey is, Do you want to be great or do you just want to be a fighter who gets [television] dates and doesn't fight for legacy or to one day be in the Hall of Fame? This fight with Linares will get him paid and at the same time possibly put him in the Hall of Fame by building his legacy."
2023-10-19 21:33:44
