By Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions wants to know why the WBC are protecting the inactive middleweight champion Jermall Charlo. De La Hoya posed the question on Twitter on Wednesday as to why the World Boxing Council is “protecting” Charlo, who has been in a holding pattern for close two years without defending his WBC strap.
It’s unclear why the WBC hasn’t already stepped in and stripped Jermall or given him the ‘Champion in recess’ tag that they assign to their belt holders who are unable to defend their titles for one reason or another.
We’ve heard that Jermall has had a back injury, but whether that’s the main reason for his close to two years in between title defenses is the big question.
Whatever the case, the WBC probably should have at least given Charlo the ‘Champion in recess’ tag so the belt could be freed up for the contenders to fight over. You don’t want the WBC belt to eventually become an heirloom for Jermall and sit around for ages, collecting dust while the contenders age out while waiting for a title shot that never comes.
If you’re a contender at middleweight, it’s fair to say you don’t want to go in the direction of trying to capture the WBC belt because you might get old waiting for that shot while Charlo sits on the belt without defending it for years.
Why the fack is the WBC protecting Jermall Charlo. Hasn’t made a tittle defense in 18 months and guess who’s #1 @jaimemunguia15 let’s go!!
— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) February 1, 2023
De La Hoya pointed out that his fighter Jaime Munguia is #1 in the WBC’s rankings, which appears to be him suggesting that the WBC should strip Charlo and either install his fighter as the champion or perhaps have him face interim champ Carlos Adames for the belt.
It’s questionable whether De La Hoya would allow the ten-year veteran Munguia (41-0, 33 KOs) fight a talent like Adames because the chances are high that he would lose, and it’s not exactly the type of cash-out fight that would be ideal for making a boatload of money. Many boxing fans see Munguia as another Ryan Garcia type of fighter.
In other words, a guy that has been matched against exclusively soft opposition to build up an unbeaten record with the ultimate goal of putting him in a big money-cash-out fight against a big star, such as Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin. Neither of those fighters has shown interest in fighting Munguia, unfortunately.
The undefeated 32-year-old Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) hasn’t defended his WBC 160-lb title in 20 months since defeating Juan Macias Montiel by a 12 round unanimous decision in a grueling war in June 2021.
At the time, Montiel (23-6-2, 23 KOs) was thought by many to be another cherry-pick for Jermall, as he’d been knocked out in the second round by Jaime Munguia in 2017 and beaten by a series of mediocre fighters.
What was surprising was how tough a time Charlo had with Munguia in that fight, as he needed to dig deep to pull out the victory.
Afterward, Charlo looked beaten up around the face and looked more like the loser than the winner compared to Montiel, who had the appearance of someone that had gone on a light jog around the block.
