By William Mackay: Amir Khan’s old WBA title will be on the line for his July 14th fight against WBC light welterweight champion Danny Garcia (23-0, 14 KO’s) at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada after the World Boxing Association stripped Peterson of the title.

Khan’s promoter Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions told RingTV.com that the WBA title will be vacant for Khan and Garcia to fight over. Additionally, Garcia’s World Boxing Council 140 pound title will be up for grabs, despite the fact that Garcia was supposed to be fighting his mandatory challenger Ajose Olusegun, who was due a shot at the WBC belt.

Schaefer told RingTV “I’ve got verbal confirmation that the WBA is going to have Amir fight for the WBA title, so that’s that. As it relates to the WBC, we already know that the fight is also going to be for the WBC title, so their fight will definitely be for two belts.”

That’s pretty messed up, because not only is Olusegun getting the shaft by being bypassed without a step aside fee, but Peterson is being stripped of his WBA title despite the fact that he tested negative for performance enhancing drugs when he beat Khan last December.

It’s hard to really understand why Khan wants the WBA title back other than for bragging rights or something, because he plans on moving up in weight if he defeats Garcia. Why have the title on the line if Khan doesn’t have any intention of keeping the belt? I know Khan wants to say that he’s unified most of the titles, but he still hasn’t beaten Lucas Matthysse, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Mike Alvarado, three very tough fighters at 140.

Also, Khan’s win over Marcos Maidana was very controversial due to the referee continually stepping in to break up the action after Maidana had Khan hurt in the 10th round. I personally think that if Maidana didn’t have the referee pulling him apart from Khan when he was trying to finish him off that he would have knocked Khan out. Since that fight, Khan has shown little interest in fighting Maidana again. Instead, Khan has fought Paul McCloskey, Zab Judah and Peterson.