Danny Garcia vacates WBC world title

In a move that was nothing other than inevitable, Danny Garcia has been forced to vacate his WBC world title in the junior welterweight division. It's being reported that WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman had an "emotional conversation" with Garcia telling him that he basically needed to vacate his title or else be stripped.

Garcia hasn't defended his world titles in over a years time, with a stated intention of inching his way up to the welterweight division, so really this is something that could've been done sooner. And while there's no word yet on the WBA and Ring Magazine titles that Danny also holds, if we're even to apply a modicum of logic here, those should be soon to follow.

The inevitability of all of this is that Garcia still owes a mandatory title defense against Viktor Postol that the WBC ordered late last year. But Danny never had any intention of fighting Postol, ever. He paid Postol a hefty step-aside fee so that he could face Lamont Peterson this past April without giving up his title, and is already in the midst of negotiating another nontitle fight with Paulie Malignaggi on August 1st (which will also take place above the 140lb limit). Fact is, Garcia just can't make 140lbs anymore.

"Danny's weight situation forced his decision to fight at welterweight," the WBC said.

But as a sign of respect for Garcia, the WBC has named him "champion emeritus," meaning he can come back and immediately challenge for his title should he ever be able to make 140 again, however unlikely. With Garcia relinquishing his title, the WBC has ordered Viktor Postol and Lucas Matthysse to fight for their now vacant belt.

"Obviously we're not shocked by what happened with Garcia," said Postol's co-promoter Carl Moretti of Top Rank. "We knew Danny Garcia was never going to defend his title again. We look forward to making the fight with Matthysse. It's a great fight stylistically and we'll get a deal done as soon as possible. It's a really interesting fight."

Both sides for Postol and Matthysse say they to want to make this fight happen.