Luke Campbell not expecting to face Mikey Garcia

Lightweight contender Luke Campbell, who is the current WBC mandatory challenger, isn’t expecting to face current WBC titleholder Mikey Garcia, but he does figure he’ll be fighting for the belt at some point this year.

Campbell (19-2, 15 KO) is currently set to return on March 15 in a tune-up bout on the Farmer-Carroll card on DAZN, while Garcia (39-0, 30 KO) is of course set to move up to welterweight to face IBF titleholder Errol Spence Jr on March 16.

“I don’t think you can go to fight at welterweight, and then go back down straight to lightweight. I think he’ll have bulked up a bit, put a bit of muscle on and stuff like that to go up to welter, so I cannot imagine him being able to just come straight back down. ... Either way, I’ll be fighting for the title. After his fight, we should definitely get some news on what is going on. I would like to be fighting for the title in July.”

The 31-year-old Campbell has challenged for a world title once, losing a very competitive decision to Jorge Linares in Sept. 2017. He’s won two straight since, including avenging his first pro loss to Yvan Mendy. Campbell solidly outpointed Mendy over 12 rounds on the Joshua-Povetkin card last September.

If Campbell were to fight someone for the vacated title this summer, the current top rated WBC contenders are Russia’s Zaur Abdullaev, who holds the WBC “silver” title; Anthony Crolla, who is facing WBA/WBO champion Vasiliy Lomachenko on April 12; and top prospects Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez. Javier Fortuna, Jose Pedraza, Mendy, Masayoshi Nakatani, and Edis Tatli round out the top 10.