Jermall Charlo to fight in June in Houston

By Jeff Aranow

Boxingnews24.com

WBC interim middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (28-0, 21 KOs) will be back in the ring this summer in June to defend his interim title against an opponent still to be determined in his hometown of Houston, Texas.

This probably won’t be Matt Korobov (28-2, 14 KOs) that Charlo will be fighting next, although it probably should be given the controversy surrounding their previous fight on December 22.

Charlo beat the 36-year-old Korobov by a controversial 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 116-112, 119-108 and 116-112. A lot of boxing fans had Korobov winning the fight. However, he was the B-side opponent picked out to replace Willie Monroe Jr., Charlo’s originally scheduled opponent, who had to pull out of the contest.

“Jermall Charlo will return in June in his hometown, Houston. Jermell Charlo will rematch Tony Harrison during the same month on a separate card,” said Mike Coppinger on his Twitter.

The World Boxing Council ordered former WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin to face Charlo in a final title eliminator with the winner of the fight to be made the new mandatory for WBC middleweight champion Saul Canelo Alvarez. Golovkin, not surprisingly, didn’t want to fight Charlo to get a fight that he’ll likely get anyway in September just based on his popularity, and if he signs with DAZN.

The WBC is taking their time in ordering Canelo to defend against Charlo. Whether the WBC is dragging their feet on ordering the Canelo-Charlo fight for fear of Canelo vacating their belt is unclear. The WBC tried ordering Canelo to defend their WBC middleweight title against Golovkin three years ago in 2016, and he vacated the title. Would Canelo vacate a second time if the WBC ordered him to fight Charlo? All you can do is look at what Canelo did in the past to predict what he’d do in the future. Many people don’t change.

Since Golovkin isn’t going to help out the WBC by fighting Canelo’s mandatory challenger for him in Charlo, it looks like he’ll be defending his interim WBC title against just show is unknown at this time. A likely opponent for Charlo’s next fight will probably come from this list of fighters:

– Luis Arias

– Gabriel Rosado

– Immanuwel Aleem

– Hassan N’Dam N’Jikam

– Yamaguchi Falcao

– Jason Quigley

Out of that bunch, N’Dam would have to be seen as a very likely opponent for Charlo, but then again, there’s no reason for him to agree to that fight. N’Dam is ranked #3 by the WBC. He’s probably not going to want to risk losing that ranking and blow an eventual title shot against Canelo Alvarez by taking on Charlo. Premier Boxing Champions will likely get one of these guys to agree to fight Charlo by giving them a big offer.