Jermell Charlo intends to be a champion again, though not through the merit of competition as a recent report from ESPN’s Mike Coppinger claims the former undisputed 154 lbs champion wants to be reinstated as the WBA “Super” champion of the division, which would demote current WBA 154 lbs world champion Israil Madrimov a WBA “Regular” champion. Furthermore, Coppinger also claims that Charlo intends to fight the potential winner of the Crawford-Madrimov bout that has been reported to be in the negotiation stage.
The petition by Jermell Charlo (35-2-1, 19 KO’s), through his ‘promoter’ TGB Promotions, attempts to reposition Charlo as the champion by requesting him to be made the WBA “super” champion at 154 lbs.
As the WBA champion-in-recess, Jermell Charlo actually does not have the right to instantly become a champion as he first is required to face whoever is the champion―or highest-rated contender in the absence of one, as the WBA’s own rules dictate:
However, the WBA has subverted this rule before when it came to Rolando “Rolly” Romero’s (15-2, 13 KO’s) match against Isaac Cruz (26-2-1, 18 KO’s) on March 30th, having reinstated Romero as a champion and allowed him to fight Cruz who was not ranked on any of the sanctioning bodies’ super lightweight rankings at the time.
Given the WBA’s lack of consistency on this matter, Jermell Charlo has every chance of becoming the WBA “super” champion at super welterweight/junior middleweight―despite there currently being no distinction between “super” and “regular” WBA champions; with Israil Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KO’s) currently acknowledged as the sole WBA world champion at 154 lbs.
If the petition proves to be successful, Madrimov, who earned the vacant WBA title after a stoppage victory over Russian contender Magomed Kurbanov (25-1, 13 KO’s), would be demoted to “regular” champion. Meanwhile, Charlo, who lost during his last match against Canelo Alvarez (60-2-2, 39 KO’s) would be rated above Madrimov by becoming the “super” champion, and in essence be regarded as the true champion of the division.
This potential move by the WBA would be egregious at best, and starkly contradicts their initial stance to make Jermell Charlo a champion-in-recess in the first place. Earlier this year, the WBA claimed uncertainty surrounding Charlo’s future at 154 lbs prompted them to relinquish his WBA title―indicating that the WBA had more interest in moving the division along when they subsequently ordered Madrimov and Kurbanov to fight over the vacant title.
Moreover, although Jermell Charlo did express interest in fighting the winner between Terence Crawford (40-0, 31 KO’s) and Israil Madrimov―as they have been confirmed to be in negotiations for a potential world title fight, he is also linked to fighting Sebastian Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KO’s), Tim Tszyu (24-1, 17 KO’s) and Errol Spence Jr (28-1, 22 KO’s), which would go against the WBA’s requirement of Charlo needing to face WBA champion Madrimov if he truly wanted a world title.
It should also be noted that the WBA has multiple means to appropriately handle Jermell Charlo’s petition, and due to them having the authority they can simply order Charlo to fight the winner of Madrimov-Crawford if their fight is arranged. A failure by Charlo to follow this mandate would then result in Charlo’s champion-in-recess status being made void, which would no longer allow him to become the WBA mandatory challenger.
