By Jason Kim: Barring any additional unforeseen illnesses or injuries from WBC light welterweight champion Erik Morales (52-7, 36 KO’s), he should be making his first defense of his International Boxing Federation title next month against #3 WBC ranked contender Danny Garcia (22-0, 14 KO’s) on March 24th in Houston, Texas.

Morales, 35, was already supposed to have fought Garcia last month on January 28th at the Reliant Arena in Philadelphia. However, Morales needed emergency gallbladder surgery and that wiped out that date.

Morales is going to need a lot of luck to beat Garcia because he’s a genuine light welterweight and isn’t a blown fighter like Morales. He’s naturally bigger, faster and stronger than Morales. He’s a lot younger than him and that’s going to be a big problem for Morales unless he looks better than he’s been looking in his last five bouts since making his comeback in March 2010.

Morales fought Pablo Cesar Cano for the vacant WBC title last September and was able to stop him in the 10th. Morales was able to fight for the vacant title after the WBC changed the status of the previous champion Timothy Bradley to champion in recess after he hadn’t defended the title in six months. It was an ideal situation for Morales, as he likely would have never in a million years beaten Bradley.

Morales then got a second big break when the guy that he was set to fight for the vacant WBC title, Lucas Mattysse, became ill a week before they were supposed to fight last September and had to pull out of the fight. With Matthysse unable to fight, a replacement was found down near the bottom of the WBC rankings in finding the 22-year-old Cano. Morales was able to beat him but he took a ton of punishment in the fight.

Also fighting on the same March 24th Morales-Garcia card will be junior middleweight contenders James Kirkland (30-1, 27 KO’s) facing Carlos Molina (19-4-2, 6 KO’s) in a scheduled 12 round bout. The winner of the Kirkland-Molina fight must face Vanes Martirosyan in a WBC final junior middleweight eliminator bout with the winner of that fight becoming the mandatory challenger to WBC champion Saul Alvarez. By the time those fights take place, Alvarez will have already defended his WBC title twice. It sure is convenient the way that the WBC is making Alvarez’s contenders jump through a lot of hoops to get a crack at him.