After today’s official announcement of Showtime’s upcoming fights, Stephen Espinoza talks to Brian Custer about why Jermall Charlo is facing Maciej Sulecki instead of Jaime Munguia after being so close to making that happen. Check out some of what Espinoza had to say about it below.
On Jermall Charlo’s upcoming title defense against Maciej Sulecki
“The reality is there’s been a lot of discussion…about Charlo’s journey to this fight. The reality is when a super fight like a Canelo vs Charlo fight falls apart you just have to regroup, move to the next best thing whether it’s gonna be Munguia, or in this case Sulecki. Sulecki is a proven contender, veteran, only two losses to two of the best guys in the division in Danny Jacobs and Billy Joe Saunders. I know everybody wanted Canelo-Charlo, you know, I still want that too, I know Jermall more than anybody wants that fight. But this is a really good alternative here, and a quality test in Houston.”
On it seeming like Charlo-Munguia was close and whether or not Munguia’s team really wanted that fight
“I have no doubt that Munguia wants that fight. First of all, I would never question the heart of a fighter and certainly somebody as accomplished as Munguia. But Munguia had a deal, he reached an agreement, he had accepted the terms of the fight, so I have no doubt…for us, his part was done, he accepted the fight.
“Things broke down over networks and Munguia’s promoter’s request that we bring in another network to collaborate with, and we can get into some of the details on that, but the reality is it just didn’t make sense. We tried to make some concessions, you know, alternating, we get the fight and Munguia’s network can get the rematch. Ultimately that never got anywhere and we weren’t able to reach an agreement. So we’ve got to move on and get Jermall the best available fight after that.