By Steve Kim

Jorge Linares defends his WBA lightweight title tomorrow night from the Forum in Inglewood, California, against Mercito Gesta in an HBO televised fight.

In recent interviews, Linares has expressed heavy interest in colliding with two possible opponents - WBC champion Mikey Garcia and WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko, who is moving up to 135-pounds in the near future.

If Linares should come out victorious, is a showdown against the highly regarded Lomachenko a possibility?

When BoxingScene.com directed this question to Bob Arum, the head of Top Rank, which represents Lomachenko - he replied simply, "Yes."

"I think Linares is a tremendous fighter. He has a great resume, he's a lightweight champion that has had a number of defenses," continued the veteran promoter on Friday morning from the Wild Card Boxing Club.

"Lomachenko has been tremendous at 126, 130 and now he's going up to 135 and hopefully from my standpoint he's as brilliant at 135 as he was in the lower weight classes. But who really knows until we see him?"

Lomachenko in his last outing back in early December faced fellow two-time Olympic gold medal winner Guillermo Rigondeaux, who had to move up two full weight classes (from super bantamweight to junior lightweight) and was made to quit on his stool after six rounds at New York's Madison Square Garden Theater.

It looks like that was the last defense of his WBO 130-pound title - and Lomachenko is looking to test himself at 135 from the opening gate.

"In talking with Vasyl and talking with Egis (Klimas) his manager, they don't want to take tune-ups at 135," said Arum. "They want to go against the best and the best at 135 - a least until (Ray) Beltran wins the title - is Lomachenko.

"So why wouldn't we make that match?"

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.