WBC’s Middleweight champion, Jermall Charlo, has been missing in action for over a year since beating Juan Macias Montiel in the summer of 2021. The (older) twin brother of, undisputed Super Welterweight champion Jermell Charlo, has not resumed fighting ever since his bout with Montiel due to a number of incidents stemming around legal troubles and injuries.
The question remains however, why has his belt not been vacated? In the WBC’s own rules and regulations dossier, the WBC would have no reason but to strip Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22 KO’s) based on their own ruling:
According to the above-stated rules, prolonged inactivity of nearly two years would technically force Charlo to be stripped of his belt, especially considering the claims of legal troubles and injury he suffered in 2022. Both which circumstances would have warrant the relinquishment of his title. In the case of the latter, he would likely be given the status of “champion in recess” which would allow him to fight for his title at a later date following his recovery.
Instead of Jermall Charlo vacating his title, he has kept his during a two-year absence which has contributed to the Middleweight division growing stagnant over that period. Gennady Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KO’s) and Janibek Alimkhanuly (13-0, 8 KO’s) are the other two champions in the division, but WBA & IBF champion Golovkin seems to have been sidetracked after a recent loss to Canelo Alvarez a division up, while WBO champion Alimkhanuly is a relatively new and unestablished champion in his weight class. With Charlo having been out of action too, there has been no chance for any unification fight, and the division has sort of been in a state of limbo as the WBA and WBC interim champions/mandatories are forced to wait for their opportunities while the rest of the contenders in the weight class struggle to gain a chance.
Charlo is at the very forefront of this issue. As Alimkhanuly and Golovkin (both Kazakhstani) seem reluctant to face each other, it would have to be up to the WBC champion to engage with either of them, and said champion has simply been completely absent from the sport of boxing. Though he isn’t necessarily to blame, the WBC can easily promote the Middleweight division’s interim champion, Carlos Adames (22-1, 17 KO’s), into a position where he will face either of the two other world champions and light a spark in the division.
Instead, boxing fans are forced to contend with a lack of notable unification fights even when other divisions are steady on the move with such bouts. In any other circumstance, Charlo being inactive would definitely have seen him stripped and usually be given the status of champion-in-recess, which would allow them to fight for the title they lost upon returning, as explained earlier in this article. The most poignant example of a boxer who was been stripped due to inactivity – pertaining to an injury – includes Jorge Linares, who was stripped as the WBC Lightweight champion by the WBC themselves in 2016. He was classified as a “champion in recess” and the title would switch hands at least thrice over the next three years before ending up with Devin Haney, the current undisputed Lightweight champion.
This essentially means that within the two years that the title has been ‘held hostage’ by Jermall Charlo, another deserving boxer could have received the opportunity to become champion, and Charlo would not have been barred from an opportunity to win his title back anyway.
Whispers would allude to WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman’s alleged close connections to the PBC, the latter to which Charlo is signed, as the reason for Charlo still being a champion. But pure logic and research dictates that the WBC should effectively have given other boxers a chance, given their own guidelines.
Charlo hasn’t made matters any easier with his last public appearance where he was allegedly intoxicated and pushing for a non-title bout with WBA Light-Heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol (21-0, 11 KO’s) who is two divisions up from where Charlo is now. The fact he, an inactive champion, even attempted to corral Bivol into a fight speaks of the volume of laxness within the WBC. That scene alone would have heavily justified Charlo being forced to relinquish his belt, instead, the WBC champion is walking about – all while apparently still nursing an injury – challenging champions two divisions up for a fight that is unrealistic to begin with.
To conclude, there is no valid reason why Charlo should still be a champion. While every other news outlet seems intent on ignoring this blatant sign of corruption from the WBC, ours is all too happy to highlight unscrupulousness from an organization that seems to make dishonesty and incompetence their brandmark with the (lack of) action(s) such as theirs. The fact someone like Charlo can completely skirt their mandatory obligations as a champion, to challenge someone outside their weight class – who is genuinely looking to further their career – to fight in a non-title bout that will not draw as many spectators as he thinks – due to his inactivity, is a clear sign of the corruption within the WBC, and the sport of boxing, and is a bad look for everyone involved.
Watch the video below for Jermall Charlo’s banter with Bivol where he seeks to challenge him to a match.
