Amir Khan and Danny Garcia will battle it out for the WBA title when they meet in Las Vegas on July 14th, as well as Garcia’s WBC light-welterweight title.
Garcia won his WBC strap by beating Mexican legend Erik Morales in March and originally this fight was just to contend for that title, but now the WBA belt has been added after Lamont Peterson was stripped of it by the sanctioning body.
Khan lost the WBA and IBF titles to Peterson in December, but since then Peterson has tested positive for synthetic testosterone and the WBA took the title away from him.
The IBF are still yet to decide what to do with the their title, but Golden Boy Promotions chief Richard Schaefer has announced that the WBA belt will be up for grabs when the two meet in July.
“I've gotten verbal confirmation that the WBA is going to have Amir fight for the WBA title, so that's that,” Schaefer told RingTV.com.
“As it relates to the WBC, we already know that the fight is also going to be for the WBC title, so their fight will definitely be for two belts.”
This will be particularly good news for Khan who was very aggrieved with the way he lost his belts.
The entire fight was marred in controversy, firstly there was the suspect scoring, then the mysterious figure in the hat walking around at ringside, and then the subsequent drugs test failure made it seem like an unjust outcome.
What happens to Peterson remains in the balance. A rematch was called off, which prevented Khan from exacting his revenge, so Khan and his team campaigned for Peterson to be stripped of his title and the original result to be declared a no-contest.
So far the result stands as Peterson continues to try and clear his name, but at least there is some consolation for Khan as he can now try to win back his old belt.
Gareth Williams
*For a chance to win tickets to see Danny Garcia v Amir Khan go to http://www.wishfree.com/.
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