Unexpectedly, Mikey Garcia vacated his junior welterweight belt and will keep his WBC Lightweight championship, according to Dan Rafael of espn.com.
The IBF, whose junior welterweight title he won from Lipinets, gave Garcia 10 days to make a decision. He notified the sanctioning organization in a letter in late March that he planned to keep the junior welterweight belt.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman told ESPN that Garcia had notified him that he would defend his lightweight title next, which is why the WBC had not yet stripped him of the belt.
And then Garcia notified the IBF of his change of plans.
“The IBF received an email from Mikey Garcia on Sunday indicating that he was relinquishing the IBF junior welterweight title,” IBF president Daryl Peoples told ESPN on Tuesday. “We were a little surprised as well.”
