The light-welterweight unification bout between Amir Khan and Danny Garcia on Saturday night (July 14th) is a multi-title fight, with the WBA and WBC world titles on the line. Until just recently, the winner of the fight would have become a unified world champion and probably stayed like that for quite a long time. This could still be the case, but it is very unlikely.
World Boxing Council President Jose Sulaiman has claimed that the winner of the fight will have to vacate one of the titles. The reason for this is that the WBC do not usually allow their champions to remain unified with other sanctioning bodies.
"It's a real surprise to know that the WBA title is involved," said Sulaiman. "The WBC will accept only the WBC. Whoever doesn't want it, the title is vacant."
When the fight was made last month, only Garcia's WBC title was expected to be on the line, but recently Khan was reinstated as the WBA champ. Lamont Peterson, who defeated Khan last December, was stripped of his title after failing a drug test. The WBA were expected to make the title vacant but instead they handed it back to Khan.
It is very likely that the winner of the fight will vacate the WBC title. If Garcia wins, he will want to hold on to the first world title he ever won, and if Khan wins, he will also likely want to keep the WBC title as it is probably the most recognised sanctioning body around today.
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