With the news that Mikey Garcia has vacated his IBF junior welterweight title in order to continue fighting as the WBC lightweight champion, the WBC has moved forward with creating a mandatory challenger for Garcia.
The WBC has ordered title eliminator between Yvan Mendy and Luke Campbell with the winner being the mandatory challenger to Garcia's lightweight title. Interestingly, the governing body has also said that Garcia would be going forward with a unification bout with IBF lightweight champion Robert Easter Jr.
Mendy, a 32-year-old boxer from France, is the WBC Silver lightweight champion, winning the title last June. Mendy is a former French and IBF Intercontinental champion and last fought in December.
Campbell recently fought WBA lightweight champion Jorge Linares on HBO last year, losing by split decision. Campbell and Mendy fought back in 2015 with Mendy picking up the win, and the WBC International lightweight title, by split decision.
Garcia and Easter Jr. were in negotiations to unify their respective lightweight titles before the fight fell through. Easter Jr. then defended his title with a close split decision win over Javier Fortuna, who had missed weight the day prior to the fight and ineligible to win the title.
Although Garcia has held the WBC title since knocking out Dejan Zlaticaninin January 2017, he has yet to defend the title. Garcia moved up in weight to face Adrien Broner later that summer and then defeated Sergey Lipinets to win the IBF junior welterweight title in March, becoming the 17th man in boxing history to win a major world title in four different weight classes.