By Sean Jones: Jermall Charlo will be defending his WBC middleweight title against former 154-lb world title challenger Dennis Hogan (28-2-1, 7 KOs) in December, according to Mike Coppinger. The fight is being finalized. This is another lackluster fight for the 29-year-old Charlo (29-0, 21 KOs), who is coming off of a successful title defense against Brandon Adams last June in Houston, Texas.
Charlo expected to be big favorite over Hogan
Hogan, 34, recently lost a disputed 12 round majority decision to WBO junior middleweight champion Jaime Munguia on April 13 on DAZN in Monterrey, Mexico. After the controversial loss, Hogan and his team asked Munguia for a rematch, but it’s failed to happen. With Munguia about to vacate his WBO title after his next defense against Patrick Allotey, Hogan will never get a rematch while he’s still champion.
Sources: PBC in the process of finalizing a deal for Jermall Charlo to defend WBC middleweight title vs. Dennis Hogan in December. Hogan dropped a highly controversial decision to Jaime Munguia in a 154-pound title bout. Was denied rematch and will now seek a title at new weight
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) September 4, 2019
Jermall Charlo failing to get big fights
Charlo’s career isn’t going the way some boxing fans had hoped it would. Although he’s still unbeaten, and the WBC champion, he’s not been able to get important fights. Jermall wants to fight Gennady Golovkin and Saul Canelo Alvarez, but neither of those fighters have agreed to face him. Charlo was the WBC mandatory for Golovkin and Canelo, but the sanctioning body didn’t order the fights. Now that the WBC has given Canelo the Franchise tag, he doesn’t need to face Charlo.
Last December, Charlo won a controversial 12 round decision against Matvey Korobov in New York. A lot of boxing fans felt that Charlo should have lost that fight. Boxing News 24 had the 36-year-old Korobov winning the contest. However, Charlo was the A-side in the fight against the 2008 Olympian Korobov, and this may have helped. Charlo hasn’t made a move to give Korobov a rematch to clear up the controversy.
Erickson Lubin to fight Terrell Gausha
In other news, former 154-lb world title challenger Erickson Lubin (21-1, 16 KOs) has signed to face Terrell Gausha (21-1-1, 10 KOs). The fight will take place in the fall, according to Mike Coppinger. It’s a decent match-up for the 23-year-old Lubin. He’s won his last three fights since being stopped in the 1st round by former WBC 154-lb champion Jermell Charlo in October 2017.
Lubin might have been a little too young at the time to be challenging the 27-year-old Charlo back then. He made the mistake of dipping low in front of Charlo. This left him wide open for a chopping right hand. That’s one of Charlo’s favorite punches he likes to throw. Since that loss, Lubin has won three straight fights against these fighters: Zakaria Attou, Ishe Smith and Silverio Ortiz. None of those guys were big threats to Lubin though. Unfortunately, he may still have the same flaws in his game that Charlo took advantage of two years ago.