Ryan Garcia will fight Devin Haney next if the WBC has its way.
Garcia won the sanctioning body’s “interim” lightweight title by stopping Luke Campbell in the seventh round on Saturday in Dallas. Haney is designated as the WBC titleholder even though Teofimo Lopez sits above him as “franchise” champion.
Yes, it’s confusing.
WBC President said on The Ak & Barak Show that he will order a fight between Garcia and Haney for Haney’s belt, which would at least eliminate one of the three 135-pounders who wear the green belt.
“First, the WBC always allows three, four days or one week after an event for the fighter to settle down, to enjoy the moment, to celebrate a victory, instead of shooting them immediately a letter of work,” Sulaiman said.
“So we will take a couple of days. Now we’re starting the year, and next what goes out is the letter to both camps to begin the negotiations for the fight.”
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That doesn’t necessarily mean that Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs) will fight Haney (25-0, 15 KOs) in his next fight. Garcia has repeatedly called out another secondary titleholder, Gervonta Davis. And Garcia’s team might decide not to jump directly into a difficult fight.
Garcia spoke to TalkSport before the Campbell fight.
“I’m gonna be quite honest: I wanna fight Gervonta next,” he said. “That’s who I want, I wanna take on that man. I’ve been calling it for a while and that’s the fight. That’s the fight that would make me great.
“That’s the fight that will complete the puzzle that I have put together. That’s who I want and that’s who I’m gonna be striving to get. I’m gonna give the people what they want, and I’m gonna put a whooping on him, I promise you that.
“Everybody’s scared, everybody fears something about that man. And to me it’s gonna be as easy as anything. It’s gonna be as easy as singing my ABCs. I promise you that’s the fight that’s gonna shock the world. I’ve been saying it from the beginning, I wanna shock the world.
“That’s who I’m coming after, big, bad ‘Tank,’ the man who hits so hard, the man that crushes people’s face in. That’s the fight that I wanna show everybody who I really am. After that I wanna fight Teofimo Lopez or Devin Haney or anybody. I don’t really care after that.
“Nobody matters as much as that fight with ‘Tank’. That’s the main fight.”