The fight against Ryan Garcia and Javier Fortuna is set for July with the winner appearing as a mandatory WBC title challenge

In a situation that could only be caused by boxing, Ryan Garcia and Javier Fortuna both claim to be the next mandatory opponent of WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney. Hoping to find out who would be against Haney’s belt, Garcia and Fortuna plan to face the clashes on Friday, July 9, when the official fight took place on Tuesday, although the location of the event has not yet been confirmed.

Garcia will return to DAZN, the first platform of the rising star, as the provisional WBC champion. He won the provisional title in January when he beat Luke Campbell. Garcia struggled in the playoffs, but roared with his body shot for the seventh inning. After the fight, Garcia stated that he wanted a big fight with Gervonta “Tank” Davis or Haney.

After Garcia reported on his fight with Fortuna, Haney wasted no time in blasting Garcia on Twitter.

Of course, the status of Haney being the WBC champion has not been debated. After winning the WBC interim championship after Vasiliy Lomachenko defeated Luke Campbell, it was less than a month after he was left empty-handed to get a “full” WBC tournament, which many questioned why the interim fight was necessary. The WBC then promoted Lomachenko to “franchise champion” and then promoted Haney to full champion. Haney was then champion when an operation delayed the title defense, and he had to fight Fortuna Campbell to suddenly leave again to win the WBC championship. However, the sanctioning body reversed the course and Haney became the champion again as Fortune remained a mandatory competitor without any form of WBC title, either provisional or otherwise.

This situation, and instead of “giving” champion Haney a chance to win in the ring, led the IBF, WBA and WBO lightweight champions to mark Haney as the “email champion”.

Haney plans to fight Jorge Linares in defense of the voluntary title on May 29th.

Fortuna is a former WBA featherweight champion, and Garcia will enter the fight in a three-fight victory when he lost his decision against Robert Easter Jr. in January 2018.