By Steve Kim

On Monday afternoon, Jake Donovan of BoxingScene.com broke the news that the WBC had ordered a lightweight title fight between Jorge Linares and Javier Prieto, while their current belt-holder Omar Figueroa was on the mend from his outing versus Daniel Estrada back in August (https://www.boxingscene.com/wbc-orders-linares-vs-prieto-vacant-135-lb-title-fight--84107)

According to Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker Robert Diaz, Linares-Prieto will take place on "December 30th in Tokyo, Japan."

For the talented yet fragile Linares, it's an opportunity to set up a significant 2015.

"The lightweight division has a lot of names and obviously Jorge would establish himself back into that top level of the division and the big fights is something he's been yearning for since the (Antonio) Demarco fight and obviously he got side-tracked there by (Sergio) 'Yayo' Thompson but he's back on track and I think we're finally going to be at the best point in his career."

Linares' 2014 has consisted of a ten-round decision over Nihito Arakawa and a second-round stoppage of Ira Terry. Since his back-to-back losses to Demarco and Thompson, he has won six consecutive bouts.

The fight will be part of a major card at the Metropolitan Gym. The card is headlined by WBO super flyweight Omar Andres Narvaez defending his title against undefeated Naoya Inoue, who dropped the WBC title at junior flyweight and moves up by two divisions. Also, Akira Yaegashi faces Pedro Guevara for the vacant WBC light flyweight title. And Olympic gold medal winner Ryota Murata takes on Jessie Nicklow.

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.