Ryan Garcia vs. Luke Campbell likely for Dec.26th

By Boxing News - 11/17/2020 - Comments

By Barry Holbrook: Ryan Garcia vs. Luke Campbell is now heading for December 26th and Gennadiy Golovkin vs. Kamil Seremeta on December 18th. Those dates still aren’t definite, according to Mike Coppinger, but still likely.

If Garcia-Campbell stays on December 26th, it would mean that they’ll be weighing in on Christmas on December 25th. That’s not exactly ideal, but oh well. 2020 has been a strange year with the pandemic. Ryan and Campbell fighting on the day after Christmas fit in with how bizarre things have been this year.

Ryan has been vocal about his future plans should he win against Campbell. He doesn’t want to fight “boring” WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney. He says he wants WBA champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis.

If Ryan loses, he can forget about Tank Davis. Campbell will surely go along with the World Boxing Council’s wishes to take on Haney.

Luke, with the experience

Campbell (20-3, 16 KOs) will bring a lot of experience into the ring with him when he faces the 22-year-old Ryan, and it could give him a favorable boost on the night. But as Ryan points out, Campbell’s experience against top fighters has been negative with him losing to Jorge Linares, Vasily Lomachenko, and Yvan Mendy.

Image: Ryan Garcia vs. Luke Campbell likely for Dec.26th

Ryan says if that’s the kind of experience that Campbell, 33, has, then he doesn’t want it. Still, Campbell has been in with the better guys, and he did capture a gold medal in the 2012 Olympics, even though it was controversial.

That was the Olympics that took place in London, England, which is why some boxing fans felt that Campbell and Anthony Joshua were both given gold medals. Both appeared to lose in a couple of their fights, but they were still given the nod.

#3 WBC ranked King Ryan vs. Campbell is the far better fight than IBF middleweight champion Golovkin’s title defense against his mandatory Szeremeta (21-0, 5 KOs), which isn’t attracting any buzz at all from fans.

GGG fighting a no name

That’s bad news for DAZN, who is paying Golovkin (40-1-1, 35 KOs) a lot of money, and that’s not going to get much value for his mismatch against Szeremeta. It’s not just that it’s a mismatch.

The main problem with Golovkin-Szeremeta is casual boxing fans have no clue who Szeremeta is, and they’re not going to want to subscribe to DAZN to watch GGG fight someone they’ve never heard of.

It would be better for DAZN if Golovkin, 38, vacated his IBF title, and took on a popular middleweight for his next fight rather than sticking it out with the Szeremeta fight. With the kind of money that DAZN is paying Golovkin, it’s bad that he’s got an opponent that no one but the hardcore boxing fans knows about.

Image: Ryan Garcia vs. Luke Campbell likely for Dec.26th

DAZN needs subscribers, as they just lost Canelo Alvarez, but GGG isn’t going to help bring them in for his fight with Szeremeta.

DAZN is finishing December strong with Canelo fighting Callum Smith on December 19th, GGG-Szeremeta on December 18th, and Ryan Garcia vs. Luke Campbell on December 26th.