By Charles Brun: The constantly moving match between lightweight contenders Ryan Garcia and Luke Campbell is now expected to take place in December. With nothing being said about the WBC ordered fight between Campbell (20-3, 16 KOs) and Garcia (20-0, 17 KOs), many boxing fans are assuming that it won’t take place at all in 2020.
Promoter Eddie Hearn says that Garcia, 22, and the 33-year-old #2 WBC Campbell will probably take place in December. However, the amount of times this fight has been moved makes it quite possible that we won’t see it take place until 2021.
Delaying the Garcia-Campbell contest until next year will benefit the fights by giving them a chance to fight in front of a live gate. It’s too important of a fight for it to take place without fans. For the loser of the fight, they may not ever get a big money fight again.
Ryan Garcia = dangerous opponent for Luke
While some boxing fans believe the 2012 Olympic gold medalist Campbell will have too much experience for the much younger King Ryan, it might not turn out that way.
The combination of blazing hand speed, power, reflexes, and youth of the American Ryan Garcia might prove to be too much for Campbell. What’s working against Luke is that the Garcia clash could take place in the U.S. If it’s conducted in front of a crowd, it could be bad for the British fighter.
Also, Campbell is coming off of a grueling 12-round unanimous decision defeat at the hand of WBA/WBO 135-pound champion Vasily Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs) last August in London, England.
The winner of the Garcia-Campbell contest will challenge WBC lightweight champion, Devin Haney, in 2021. when the smoke clears, we’ll be able to see which of these three fighters – Campbell, Haney, or Garcia – are for real.
A lot of boxing fans are high on Haney, but he hasn’t beaten anyone solid yet to indicate whether he’s the next big thing or not. If Haney defeats the winner of the Campbell vs. Garcia match, his popularity will be sky-high.
Joshua vs. Pulev to be announced for December 12th
In other news, Hearn says he’ll be making it official for IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua to be defending his titles against his IBF mandatory Kubrat Pulev (28-1, 14 KOs) on December 12th.
Hearn still hopes to possibly stage the Joshua vs. Pulev fight in front of a live crowd, but it’s going to take an outside country to step in and host the fight for that to happen. The UK isn’t expected to allow the Joshua-Pulev fight to happen in front of a live crowd in December.
Joshua (23-1, 21 KOs) needs to get this tiresome fight against the 39-year-old Pulev out of the way so that he can move on to the much bigger match against WBC champion Tyson Fury in 2021.
What AJ doesn’t want is for him to be still trying to get the fight against the big 6’4 1/2″ Bulgarian Pulev out of the way by next year.
Fury (30-0, 21 KOs) has already advised Joshua to vacate his titles and forget about defending his straps against Pulev and Oleksandr Usyk. Tyson realizes that Joshua has a chin problem, and he doesn’t want him to chance-it by taking on guys that could ruin for him.