Garcia-Campbell WBC Lightweight showdown confirmed

Another classic example of a deadline helping a deal get done happened on Wednesday afternoon. That’s when the World Boxing Council’s second deadline to Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions finally succeeded in the sides getting a deal done the upcoming lightweight secondary title showdown between former WBC Champion, Luke Campbell and rising unbeaten star, Ryan Garcia.

First, the WBC made it official through social media that before the fight was to have gone to purse bids later on Wednesday the agreement is finalized and the fight will be in the United States- probably in November at a site to be determined:

Done deal! @GoldenBoyBoxing and @MatchroomBoxing have reached an agreement and the fight is on @luke11campbell Vs @KingRyanG in the USA date to be determined soon @WBCBoxing @EddieHearn pic.twitter.com/ldQ7fwinE8

— Mauricio Sulaiman (@wbcmoro) August 19, 2020

These specific details are still up in the air, because Matchroom and Golden Boy would like to have some fans, socially distanced, present for live gate revenue in another 90 days or so.

The WBC had given Hearn and Golden Boy an extra week to get the deal finalized and delayed the purse bid process from last week. That purse bid process would have allowed any promoter, who blindly made the most substantial offer, to earn the promotional rights of the fight.

However, as is often the case, the prominent promoters can alert the boxing commission that they’re on the verge of working out a deal on their own that is still lucrative for everybody involved. That’s what Hearn and Matchroom did last week.

Still, the deadline of this afternoon seemed to push things to get finished.

The biggest hold up in this scenario is obviously been the at times spoiled behavior of the 22 year old Garcia, 20-0, 17 KOs, who even as recently as July refused to cooperate with his own promoter De La Hoya. That’s, when Golden Boy wanted Garcia for the main event in what they had hoped would be their first fight card back post Covid-19.

It was supposed to be July 4th weekend in California without fans, but Garcia would not agree to the list of opponents and more importantly, for the money that he was being offered.

The WBC help put this fight into motion by mandating last month that both Campbell and Garcia were their top two contenders to fight the WBC’s current World Champ Devin Haney.

It is further confusing that unified lightweight champ Vasiliy Lomachenko is also the WBC’s “franchise champ” at 135 lb. The WBC previously gave that same designation to Canelo Alvarez, as middleweight champ.

That’s where that champion can go and fight in another weight class or not even specifically defend the WBC belt. Yet, if they come back into that weight class and want to call themselves a champion and have a title defense, the WBC will still sanction it.

Lomachenko is set to take on New Yorker and unbeaten IBF champ, Teofimo Lopez, in October in a Top Rank show, reportedly in Las Vegas and without fans.

Lomachenko took out Campbell, 20-3, 16 KOs. as the popular English fighter suffered the loss of the WBC Lightweight belt last August 31st, in a 12-round decision win in London.