Luke Campbell is ready to challenge for Mikey Garcia?s WBC lightweight title, but first he has to get by an old foe.
Matchroom Boxing announced the first fight on the undercard of Anthony Joshua?s unified title defense against Alexander Povetkin on September 22 at Wembley Stadium: a WBC lightweight title eliminator between Campbell and Yvan Mendy.
Both Campbell and Mendy have already fought back in 2015 when the two fought for the WBC International title. Thanks to Mendy scoring a knockdown in the fifth round with a left hook to Campbell?s head, Mendy emerged victorious with a narrow split decision victory (115-112, 115-113, 115-112).
Since then, Mendy has won all seven of his fights, claiming several regional and European lightweight titles in that span. Mendy, the current WBC Silver titleholder, has not fought since last December when he got a knockout over Jesus Arevalo.
Despite losing the fight against Mendy, Campbell bounced back and got a shot at the world title. Riding a five-fight win streak since losing to Mendy, Campbell traveled to California to challenge for Jorge Linares? WBA lightweight world title in September 2017. Once again, Campbell was knocked down early in the fight and ultimately lost the fight by split decision. Campbell is coming off a fifth-round stoppage win over Troy James in England back in May.
The winner of the rematch will become the mandatory challenger for Garcia's WBC lightweight title, though the winner will likely wait until 2019 to be able to cash in on the world title shot. Garcia, the unified WBC and IBF champion at 135 pounds, is currently looking to get a fight against IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. at the end of the year.
The fight will be one of several big fights that will be on the Joshua vs. Povetkin card, expected to have a sellout crowd of 90,000. The card will be streamed in the United States on the DAZN service, which will launch later this year.