With Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter getting ready to fight on September 8 for the vacant WBC welterweight title, president Mauricio Sulaiman is already thinking of potential challengers for the winner.
In an interview with ESPN Deportes, the WBC President explained that there are a number of fighters who could be the first challenger to the WBC title past September 8, namely former champion Keith Thurman, who is still recovering from injuries that has kept him out of action since becoming a unified welterweight champion last year.
"Thurman has the option to fight for the title if he is healthy and ready, and if he isn't ready, then it'll be one of the mandatory challengers, either on one side being Andre Berto or the other being the winner of the fight between Yordenis Ugas and Cesar Barrionuevo," Sulaiman said.
The fight between Ugas and Barrionuevo had previously been announced to be a title eliminator but never a final eliminator. Berto, currently the No. 7 welterweight in the WBC rankings, defeated Devon Alexander by split decision back in August in the main event of a PBC on FOX card.
As for Thurman, his automatic shot at the WBC title came as part of the announcement of him vacating the title several months back after not defending it since winning in March 2017. Thurman currently holds the WBA "super" title, but has not timetable for his return or if Thurman will insert himself into the WBC welterweight title picture.
Although there is a real possibility of Thurman fighting for the WBC title he never lost, Porter recently told Fightful that he wouldn't necessarily be in favor of having to fight Thurman in his first fight back if Porter wins the WBC belt.
Garcia and Porter fight for the vacant WBC title in the main event of a Showtime Championship Boxing telecast from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.