Mikey Garcia, one of the best boxers in the world pound-for-pound, has decided to hold on to his junior welterweight world title rather than return to the lightweight division to defend the belt he has in that weight class.
Garcia, who won the WBC's lightweight world title in January 2017, has never defended the 135-pound belt because in his next fight, in July, he moved up to junior welterweight and easily outpointed former titlist Adrien Broner. Then Garcia decided to take a second consecutive bout at 140 pounds and challenged Sergey Lipinets for his world title on March 10.
Garcia won a unanimous decision to claim a world title in his fourth weight class, after which the IBF gave him 10 days to decide whether he wanted to defend that belt or return to lightweight.
His two most significant opponents at lightweight are champion Jorge Linares or junior lightweight titlist Vasiliy Lomachenko, the pound-for-pound king who is moving up in weight. But they are fighting each other on May 12 in a fight recently finalized, leaving Garcia without a major fight in the division.
On Wednesday, Garcia (38-0, 30 KOs), 30, of Moreno Valley, California, sent the IBF a letter informing the organization that he had decided to retain his junior welterweight title.
One of the stipulations to retaining his junior welterweight belt was that Garcia agree to make his first defense against his mandatory challenger, Ivan Baranchyk (18-0, 11 KOs), 25, of Russia, who knocked out Petr Petrov in the eighth round on March 9 in the title eliminator to earn the title shot.
On Thursday, the IBF sent Garcia a letter via Ringstar Sports promoter Richard Schaefer, who works with Garcia, ordering the fight with Baranchyk and instructing Schaefer to begin negotiations with Baranchyk promoter Lou DiBella. Garcia-Lipinets had been approved in the first place with the condition that the winner had to face the mandatory challenger within 90 days.
"Negotiations should start immediately and be concluded by April 22, 2018," the IBF wrote. "If you are unable to reach an agreement by April 22, 2018, the IBF will call for a purse bid to determine who will promote the bout, when and where."
Garcia is out of the country on a church mission building houses in Belize and won't be home until sometime next week, Schaefer told ESPN. He said once Garcia is back they will begin to talk about the logistics of the fight with Baranchyk.
"We are going to sit down and see what can be done," Schaefer said. "I talked to Lou. We talked about the fight and said we should wait until Mikey is back from Belize and then connect next week. So when Mike is back, Lou and I will talk. But Mikey's intentions are to defend the title."
DiBella said he hoped that Garcia would go through with the fight with Baranchyk.
"I don't know, but it appears they're going to do the fight with Baranchyk," DiBella said. "Ivan is not going to give up the opportunity he has earned to fight for the title. I did call Richard after I got the letter from the IBF, and we agreed we would talk in a week or so. We're sitting back and waiting. We are in a good situation. Either Baranchyk will fight Mikey for the title, or he will fight for the vacant title."
The WBC has not yet vacated the lightweight title. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman told ESPN that he would contact Garcia when he returns from Belize to hear from him what his intentions are.
"Garcia is on a humanitarian mission in Belize, and we will wait for his return next week to find out his plans," Sulaiman said.