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Amir Khan vs Danny Garcia: Fight Can Only Happen if Khan Gets Belts Back

Amir Khan and Danny Garcia will only fight on July 7 if it's a unification bout, which means Khan must get one of his belts back. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
Amir Khan and Danny Garcia will only fight on July 7 if it's a unification bout, which means Khan must get one of his belts back. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
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A potential July 7 clash between Amir Khan and Danny Garcia is entirely dependent upon Khan getting his WBA or IBF title back (or both) from his December loss to Lamont Peterson, as Garcia says without Khan getting the belts back and thus creating a unification exception with the WBC (whose belt Garcia owns), mandatory challenger Ajose Olusegun will be his next opponent:

A unification bout with khan is the only way we can fight. If he don't get his belts back then I will have to face my mandatory. #boxing
May 19 via Twitter for iPhone Favorite Retweet Reply


The WBC did order a purse bid for the Garcia vs Olusegun fight, which was originally scheduled for May 18, but was just pushed back to June 1. Obviously, the WBC is giving everyone time to get a Khan vs Garcia fight in order. I mean, I say "obviously" because it seems obvious to me, anyway. Golden Boy requested the extension, and their intention is to get Khan's belts back and stage the Khan-Garcia fight on July 7.

Without Garcia, Golden Boy has very limited internal options for Khan on July 7, and might have to look elsewhere for an opponent. They would prefer to not do this, of course, which is not a sly jab at Golden Boy. They're no different than anyone else who can afford to generally stay within their own promotional roster. It's always preferred to stay in-house and keep all the money.

Khan could, in theory, move up to 147 with the July fight, but even that wouldn't open anything up, really. Khan told Jim Lampley on The Fight Game that he wanted one more fight at 140, anyway.

My best guess right now is that Khan will receive one or both of the titles he lost to Peterson in December, and that Khan vs Garcia will go ahead. The power is there to make that happen. It leaves poor Ajose Olusegun out in the cold still, but that just seems like it's going to happen regardless. He's been sitting on that mandatory since September 30, and even had his fight with Ali Chebah passed over so that Erik Morales could fight Pablo Cano for the politically-vacated title held by Timothy Bradley, who had only been sitting out for about six months when the WBC moved him to "champion in recess" to gift favored son Morales a fourth belt opportunity.

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