By Ryan Burton

MGM Grand, LAS VEGAS - WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares (41-3) was a very interested observer of Mikey Garcia's brutal third knockout of Dejan Zlaticanin this past Saturday.

With the victory Garcia (36-0, 30KOs) became the WBC lightweight champion and now is a three-division champion after picking up world titles after capturing world titles at featherweight and super featherweight.

The 31-year-old Linares was confident that Garcia would win but no one could have predicted the explosive ending that took place on the Las Vegas strip.

"I was very impressed with what he did. He is a great champion. I didn't have any doubts he would win. I wasn't sure about Dejan because he never faced a really strong fighter. He fought one this time and he was really hurt by that great punch from Mikey," Linares stated.

Prior to the fight, WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman revealed that the winner would have to face the victor of the upcoming rematch between Linares and Anthony Crolla, which takes place on March 25.

The World Boxing Champion has given Linares the status of "champion in recess." Linares was stripped of the full title after suffering an injury which forced him to withdraw from scheduled defense against Zlaticanin, who eventually captured the vacant title.

Linares defeated Crolla by unanimous decision this past September and is very confident that it will be a repeat performance in March.

Before his victory on Saturday, Garcia hinted that a move up to 140 pounds would probably happen sooner than later. If Garcia sticks around, Linares is definitely interested in fighting him.

"It would be a very interesting fight between me and him. Let's see what happens and if he decides to stay at 135 pounds then let's see if he wants to fight me later in the year," Linares told BoxingScene.com.

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