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Jermall Charlo will have to go back to the drawing board.
The 160-pound WBC titlist recently suffered a back injury which forced his June 18 title defense against Maciej Sulecki in Houston to be postponed.
Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) could have had a series of desired fights at 160 pounds against the likes of Jaime Munguia, Gennadiy Golovkin, and Demetrius Andrade as well as Canelo Alvarez, David Benavidez, and Caleb Plant at 168 pounds, but he ultimately settled for the Polish pugilist Sulecki, who suffered a shutout loss to Andrade in 2019.
The 32-year-old was close to staging a fight with Jaime Munguia earlier this year, but DAZN and Showtime butted heads at the thought of a joint pay-per-view production as pushed by Munguia promoter co-Golden Boy.
Charlo opened up to Showtime on “The Last Stand With Brian Custer” to explain why the big fights seem to be escaping him.
“Nothing ever happened with Munguia. I just never got a chance to deliver that contract, and he never got a chance to deliver his to me, so we never fought. There was never much talk about a fight with Munguia,” said Charlo.
“GGG, on the other hand, he’s been at 160, he was a monster at 160. I guess he’s moving up to 168 to try and fight Canelo. I’m getting overlooked right now in the division. It’s not me, y’all.
“I’m the 160-pound champion. Where are all the other belts at? I want all the belts in the division like my brother [Jermell, who is the undisputed champion at 154 pounds]. I want to be able to unify and become one of the best middleweights to go down in history.”
Charlo has campaigned exclusively as a middleweight since 2017, and moving to 168 appears to be around the corner for the right fight at the right time – especially against Benavidez.
“No one is at fault. We both have the same handlers. When it makes sense, it’ll happen. Fans, be patient. I want the [Benavidez] fight, so the fight is going to happen,” said Charlo.
Charlo believes the Benavidez bout is the most realistic fight to make by next year when factoring a trio of names including Alvarez and Golovkin.
Alvarez was offered $45 million to fight Charlo but instead opted to face Dmitry Bivol in May in a fight he would eventually lose by unanimous decision.
“Canelo says I have nothing to offer him. I got a couple of fans that want to see the fight. The world wants to see it. He just lost to Bivol. You want a tune-up? He turned down $50 million. It is what it is. I just knew it was going to happen.
“I’m like, ‘Yes, we’re going to get that fight.’ I ran around my mansion, going crazy. ‘Let’s go, let’s go!’ He turned the fight down.”
Charlo also chimed in on Andrade, who’s recovering from shoulder surgery which stalled his 168-pound interim title fight against Zach Parker.
“[Andrade] threw away his belt. The dude has no pride. He was supposed to fight my brother at 154, and he canceled that fight too. We’re not going to keep giving you all these opportunities and you’re not taking them,” said Charlo.
“Everybody else wants them. I’ll fight anybody, I’m a fighter. As long as it makes sense. He’s going through management trouble or something like that. I don’t know what’s up with him.
“Whoever is handling his career needs their ass whooped.”
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, via email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or on www.ManoukAkopyan.com.