As always, the WBC seems to be unable to avoid a cluster of blatant mistakes that show how unequipped they are when it comes to boxing. Savannah Marshall was declared the champion in recess after being found unable to defend her WBC title against the WBC mandatory of the women’s super middleweight division, Shadasia Green, and the WBC super middleweight title is now left vacant with Green the first in line to fight for it.
However, this decision by the WBC seems out of place, or seems to be a blatant case of favoritism or bias given Jermall Charlo is currently still recognized as the WBC middleweight champion though he has not fought for over two years.
Savannah Marshall (13-1, 10 KO’s), in comparison, has just become a women’s super middleweight champion, as well as undisputed, in July and has been effectively stripped of her WBC title because of an injury, with the WBC making her the champion in recess which will allow her to fight for the same title in the near future.
This decision appears particularly odd when comparing the cases of Marshall and Charlo. Marshall recently won the WBC title but its former champion, also former undisputed champion Franchon Crews-Dezurn (8-2, 2 KO’s), was supposed to defend her WBC title against WBC mandatory challenger Shadasia Green (13-0, 11 KO’s). Dezurn fought Marshall instead, who before their fight was not in possession of any title.
The condition set for the winner between Marshall and Crews-Dezurn was to face the WBC mandatory challenger next in Shadasia Green. However, the winner of this match, Savannah Marshall, recently suffered an injury and will be out until April, thus spurring the WBC to place her as the champion in recess which will result in her WBC title being vacated. Shadasia Green will now gain the opportunity to fight for the now-vacant WBC super middleweight title.
While it is not an unreasonable condition set by the WBC, it’s worth noting the contrasting treatment of WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo, who has also faced injury-related issues but has not been stripped or designated as a champion in recess. Instead, Charlo has actually avoided the ring fr the better part of two years, and has never even been considered to be stripped or put in recess.
In fact, during a recent interview, Mauricio Sulaiman seemed strongly against any idea of stripping Charlo or placing him as the champion in recess, and seemed to bully the interviewer in question who mentioned this possibility.
There is a stark contrast in how Marshall’s injury situation has been handled compared to Charlo’s ability to retain his title for two years despite his own injury issues.
There is a clear bias here, whether it’s because Marshall is a female, British or simply not associated with the WBC like Charlo is through the PBC. This sort of favoritism is a prominent issue with the WBC, especially given how Jermall Charlo has simply abused this relationship by refusing to fight for two years.
To make matters even worse, an entire Board of Governors of the WBC decided to place Marshall as a champion-in-recess because she will presumably be out for approximately seven months. However, when Charlo incurred a long-term injury last year after already having not fought for a year, no such decision was made.
Interestingly, none of the other sanctioning bodies whose titles Marshall holds including the WBA, WBO and IBF, decided to strip her from her title and make her a champion in recess after the discovery of her injury which will leave her absent from the ring in the long-term. This more so speaks to the inconsistency that the WBC has displayed the last couple of years, as they usually do not strip fighters of titles unless it’s certain they will be out long enough not to be able to defend their titles in the designated time they need to defend them.
However, none of this still clarifies why Jermall Charlo is still known as the WBC middleweight champion, and there seems to be clear of favoritism or corruption in his case, if we closely observe this current situation with Savannah Marshall.
