The undisputed Junior Middleweight/Super Welterweight champion Jermell Charlo will not be fighting his mandated WBO challenger in Tim Tszyu in the summer, unlike what the American champion previously stated during an interview with sports presenter Brian Custer. Rather than waiting for Charlo to recover from his hand injury, Tszyu has opted to stay active and already picked out his next opponent to fight in June; Mexican contender Carlos Ocampo.
Tim Tszyu (22-0, 16 KO’s) and Carlos Ocampo (34-2, 22 KO’s) will be the headliners of a boxing event that will be held on Sunday, June 18th, at the Gold Coast Convention Centre in Broadbeach, Queensland of Australia. Tim Tszyu’s WBO interim Super Welterweight world title will be defended against Carlos Ocampo, following its previous defense against Tony Harrison (29-4-1, 21 KO’s) in March this year. The match between Tszyu and Harrison ended up as a stoppage victory for Tszyu in the ninth round.
Though Tszyu could have stayed inactive against Harrison and Ocampo while awaiting for Jermell Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KO’s) to recover, the Australian has instead chosen to fight; showing his intention to not only remain active twice in the span of just three months, but also to steadily improve.
“I don’t need to fight, I want to. I fear no one and will fight anyone,” Tim Tszyu said during the press conference that announced his fight with Carlos Ocampo.
“Ocampo is the perfect test for me right now. Dad (Kostya Tszyu) fought five Mexicans and beat them all in his career. He destroyed the greatest Mexican fighter of all time in Julio Cesar Chavez, and I would love to do the same over my career.
“I’ve wanted to fight on the Gold Coast for a long time now because I absolutely love it here. I’m excited to be making another massive statement with this fight, so don’t blink or I promise you’ll miss it.“
Tszyu’s decision is a sharp contrast to Jermell Charlo’s ― who had been dealing with a broken hand since December. Though Charlo himself had stated to be ready by the late summer (from July to August), the seriousness of his injury is now put under question with no fight being set between him and Tszyu,
To compound the situation, Tszyu’s announcement of fighting Ocampo follows a video of Jermell Charlo surfaced where he explicitly called out Canelo Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KO’s) following the Mexican’s past weekend fight with John Ryder (32-6, 18 KO’s), despite Alvarez being two divisions up and Tim Tszyu still remaining his mandatory challenger.
Considering that a fight with Canelo Alvarez is unlikely as the Mexican champion is currently pursuing a rematch with Dmitry Bivol (21-0, 11 KO’s), Jermell Charlo’s actions have created confusion since he still has an obligation to face his WBO challenger, Tim Tszyu.
Failure to meet Tszyu in the ring will likely result in the WBO stripping Charlo of his title., as the sanctioning body themselves have dictated in section 5 (a) of their regulations:
“Each WBO World Champion except in the Heavyweight Division shall defend his title at intervals not greater than nine (9) months counting from the date of the acquisition thereof or from the last compulsory defense, as the case may be, in a twelve (12) round fight, against the Mandatory Challenger, as determined by the Championship Committee according to these Regulations, unless an exception is made pursuant to these Regulations“.
Jermell Charlo became the WBO champion after defeating Brian Castaño in their May 2022 bout which subsequently resulted in Charlo becoming undisputed. By the WBO’s own rules, Charlo was supposed to fight by March at the latest, but has so far extended his hold over the WBO title due to the hand injury that he suffered in December. However, with nearly a year having passed since facing Brian Castaño, the American undisputed champion will not be able to fight anyone but Tim Tszyu if he hopes to retain his WBO title.
