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Danny Garcia is the newly-minted WBC welterweight champion of the world, but he won't be allowed to rest on his laurels by the sanctioning body. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman has ordered Danny Garcia to face Amir Khan by June, which means no voluntary defense for Garcia. For those of you who asked me when the WBC has ever not allowed a new champion to make a voluntary defense right off the bat -- well, here's an instance.
After the Garcia-Guerrero fight, neither Danny nor father/trainer Angel Garcia appeared to be particularly keen on facing Khan for a second time -- with Angel suggesting that Khan should take some interim fights and Danny saying that he doesn't have to fight anybody. But the WBC has another take on that:
"[Garcia-Guerrero] was a tremendous fight for the WBC Championship. Now we have a champion and it's going to be a great year go come. Amir Khan is the mandatory contender, he is next for Danny Garcia and they must fight by June," said Sulaiman.
Khan has gone on record saying that he wants to face Danny Garcia as soon as possible, emphatically telling TMZ that he believes if he can put a good beating on Danny that he'll still have a chance to, somehow, capture his white whale in Floyd Mayweather.
In another interview, Khan provided some clarification on his verbal jousting with Floyd that occurred during the Garcia-Guerrero fight. Khan says it was actually Mayweather who prompted their exchange. He says Floyd wasn't impressed with Garcia and turned back to poke fun at Khan for losing to him. All in all, this seems like an accurate depiction of what took place given that Mayweather was recorded on camera dismissing Garcia as "easy work" to Khan's face.
In any event, it looks like Khan will get his welterweight title shot within the next few months, and that the only way he won't be fighting Danny Garcia in a rematch is if he either gives up his mandatory position or if Garcia vacates the title he just won. Neither of those things seem likely, so Garcia-Khan II it is.