By Dan Ambrose: Lingering personal problems + two years of inactivity prevented Jermall Charlo from accepting the lucrative fight against Canelo Alvarez on September 30th, opening the door for his smaller twin brother Jermell Charlo to step in and pick up that bag in a 168-lb contest.
Chris Mannix reports that Jermall’s “team decided” not to go through with the fight against the undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) in September.
Possible reasons why Jermall felt comfortable turning down Canelo fight on September 30th:
- Jermall has enough money to turn down a fight of that magnitude against Canelo and sit inactive without fighting for 2+ years.
- Canelo fight is still possible in 2024 for Jermall. Was he promised that he’ll still get the Canelo bag in 2024?
- No longer physically ready to fight after two years of inactivity + punishing fight against Juan Macias Montiel in 2021, which may have taken a lot out of Jermall. Is he still cogent?
What boxing fans have a significant problem with is Jermall’s brother Jermell, who fights at 154, being the one that steps in to face Canelo for his undisputed 168-lb title. To the fans, that’s just wrong. Fans feel that Canelo should fight one of these three fighters next, not little Jermell Charlo:
– David Benavidez
– Dmitry Bivol
– David Morrell Jr
Jermell shouldn’t be the one that is competing for the title against Canelo in September because he’s kept his WBO mandatory Tim Tszyu on hold for the last 14 months, with two postponements.
Charlo has been out with a slow-healing broken left hand since last year, and now he won’t take the fight at all.
Jermell will now be stripped of his WBO title, which will likely see Tszyu, the interim champion, elevated to full championship status. It’s possible that Jermell could be stripped of some of his other titles at 154, but that’ll be up to the sanctioning bodies.
Given how Jermell’s twin Jermall has been allowed to sit on his WBC 160-lb belt for two years without defending it, it’s fair to say the World Boxing Council won’t be stripping Jermell of his WBC 154-lb strap.
“Jermall is a 160-lb title holder moving up for that fight, but among the reasons for more than two years is significant personal issues going on in his life.,” said Chris Mannix to The Volume.
“His team decided, with those personal issues still lingering, that he would not be in the proper headspace to train for a fight of that magnitude. So he stepped out, and in stepped Jermell, the undisputed 154-lb champion who agreed to take that fight at 168.”
