By Dan Ambrose: In more bad news, Luke Campbell has tested positive for COVID-19, and his December 5th fight against Ryan Garcia has now been postponed until further notice.
Campbell’s promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing, says he’s already completed the isolation, and he doesn’t expect a long delay for the fight to be rescheduled, according to Michael Benson.
The illness for Luke might be a good thing for Garcia, as he could lose this fight and miss out on lucrative contests against the world champions at lightweight.
Garcia-Campbell will be shown on DAZN from the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California.
Golden Boy Promotions, the promoters for King Ryan, plan on coming up with a new date soon. Ryan, 22, will stick it out with the fight rather than move now, which would be tempting at this point.
Campbell, 33, is a risky fight for Ryan, and he could blow his big plans for a money fight against WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis in the first quarter of 2021. That’s a match that is expected to bring in huge pay-per-view numbers on Showtime PPV. It’s going to have to wait through for Ryan to get past Campbell.
The Campbell fight made sense for Ryan Garcia when it was made a couple of months ago, but not anymore. Ryan is now sitting on the brink of a massive payday fight against Tank Davis, and he doesn’t need to take this risky match against Campbell.
It might be better for Ryan to follow British heavyweight Tyson Fury’s lead by taking a soft fight before his massive contest against Tank Davis.
Fury is looking ahead to a monstrous unification match against IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in 2021.
With that big money fight in front of him, Fury opted not to fight Deontay Wilder a third time instead of taking on a soft opponent Agit Kabayel on December 5th. Ryan Garcia would be better off steering clear of the risky contest against Campbell, and instead, go after the money match against Tank Davis.
Campbell has a chance to turn his career around by beating the young upstart Ryan Garcia. It’s a win-win for Campbell, but it doesn’t do much for Ryan. As I was saying, this fight did make sense for Ryan when it was made, but not anymore. Ryan is about to strike it rich fighting Tank Davis in 2021.
Garcia doesn’t need toe potential headaches that a dangerous fighter like Campbell can bring to him. This is Campbell’s world cup match, and he’s going to be totally psyched when the time comes.