Khan vs Garcia: WBC Will Sanction Title Fight, Shafting Olusegun Again

The WBC has chosen to cancel a purse bid for a Danny Garcia vs Ajose Olusegun fight for their 140-pound title, instead choosing to take bigger money and sanction Garcia to put his belt on the line against Amir Khan on July 14, live on HBO, reports David Kassel at FightHype.

The move should surprise nobody, least of all Olusegun, the 32-year-old Nigerian who has been sitting on a mandatory since last September and at this point should obviously just get on with his career, as the WBC has no intention of getting him a title shot any time soon. Since Olusegun beat Ali Chebah -- which by logical rights should have been for the vacant title, as it was a sanctioned eliminator before the WBC stripped Timothy Bradley and gift-wrapped the belt for Erik Morales -- the WBC title has been defended by Morales once against Garcia, and now Garcia will be allowed to skip past his mandatory, too.

The reason is obvious, simple, and already stated: There's a lot more money, thus more sanctioning fees, in Khan vs Garcia than there is in Garcia vs Olusegun, which is a fight that might even struggle to find a TV home in the States.

Team Olusegun's response was predictable, and you really have to feel for them being strung along, but you also have to wonder why on earth they ever trusted that the WBC was going to do the right thing. His manager called it "sad":

"If that does happen, I think it's a sad day for boxing; sad for fighters. It tells fighters striving to become #1 and to become world champion, it's just a waste of time because if you're not with the right people, you're going to get passed over."

Khan is still petitioning the IBF and WBA to return the titles he lost to Lamont Peterson in December. The HBO date has been set for a little over a week now, even though Garcia said he wouldn't fight Khan if he had to vacate his title. It turns out that was never really a concern, which most figured in the first place.

Yesterday, the proposed co-feature between Seth Mitchell and Johnathon Banks was canceled.