Jermell Charlo vs Austin Trout confirmed for June 9

It’s official. Jermell Charlo (30-0, 15 KOs) will be putting his 154lb WBC title on the line against Austin Trout (31-4, 17 KOs) on June 9th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The fight will join a scheduled Showtime card headlined by the sequel between Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares.

Charlo is most recently coming off a spectacular first round knockout over Erickson Lubin last October and has since been saying he has unified titleholder Jarrett Hurd in his sights. But first things first.

His opponent, Trout, is coming off a bounce-back decision win over Juan De Angel in February which followed a stoppage loss to Jarrett Hurd in October. Trout will be looking across the ring at a familiar face in this outing as he fought Jermell’s twin brother Jermall in mid-2015, losing a unanimous decision. Nut although Trout has lost almost all of his elite-level fights, Charlo says he’s a deserving challenger.

“Trout is no journeyman. He’s a former world champion, someone who has a name and he comes to fight. The name means he’s worthy of another title challenge,’’ Charlo said. “Trout is the man that has been chosen for me and I have to take care of him. I’m super excited to be fighting and defending my title again.”

After Charlo continued to say that he intends to prove that he’s the best 154-pounder in the world in this fight, Trout acknowledges he’ll be in familiar territory — although he thinks this is a more favorable style match-up for him.

“I feel like I’ve done this before because I fought his brother. Jermell uses more of his skills where Jermall uses more of his brute strength. I fought the bigger one and I fought Hurd, who was like his bigger brother. Now I get to fight someone who is closer to my size.”

A win for Charlo would likely set up a highly anticipated three-belt title unification with Hurd before the year is out, which would surely be a spectacular fight.

God’s plan.