By Miguel Rivera

WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares is hoping that a deal can be reached with former three division world champion Mikey Garcia, who holds the WBC title at 135-pounds.

As previously reported on BoxingScene.com, Golden Boy Promotions President Eric Gomez, who handles Linares (43-3, 27 KOs), want to get a deal done with Garcia as soon as possible.

Because Linares also holds the WBC's "Diamond" title at 135-pounds - he is the mandatory challenger to Garcia.

At their recent annual convention, the World Boxing Council ordered Linares and Garcia to fight each other - but the sanctioning body never set any deadlines for a deal to get reached.

According to Linares, there have been communications with Garcia (37-0, 30 KOs) and the two of them are on the same page on staging a fight.

Linares respects Garcia a lot and predicts a very tough fight for the two of them.

"He sent me a message, I sent him a message, he agrees to fight me, I agree to fight him, everyone wants the fight. It will not be an easy fight for him or for me. He has his audience, I have mine. He has my respect too, I think he's one of the best at 135 pounds. He is the one that I want, we only wait for the promoter to reach an agreement and I think that it's better to face Mikey, not so much monetarily, but for motivation, to fight with the best of the best, because he is the best and that is what I want and he wants, nothing more than to stage the fight," Linares told ESPN Deportes.

"I would come at my best, the experience I have today favors me a lot. He is a good boxer, quite tough, he is Mexican - and I have always had respect for Mexicans even though I lost with three of them. I have no problem with that. Now I'm on another level, I'm in the best moment of my career but I know it will not be easy, neither for him nor for me."