Jermell Charlo has been stripped of his WBC junior middleweight title, given the ‘Champion in recess’ tag, and the belt will now be contested over by #3 Sebastian Fundora and #2 Serhii Bohachuk of their struggle on March thirtieth on the Tim Tszyu vs. Keith Thurman card on Amazon Prime PPV on the T-Cell Area in Las Vegas.
Charlo hasn’t fought at 154 for shut to 2 years since his unification struggle with WBO junior middleweight champion Brian Castano in Might 2022.
On his social media website, Dan Rafael revealed the information of Jermell being stripped of his WBC 154-lb title and belt being at stake for the Fundora vs. Bohachuk contest on March thirtieth.
Furthermore, the final time Jermell made a title protection of his WBC title was approach again in September 2020, when he defeated Jeison Rosario by an eighth-round knockout.
When you’re one of many many contenders within the WBC’s prime 15 rankings at 154, it needs to be irritating sitting and ready for a title shot in opposition to a champion who hasn’t defended the belt for near 4 strong years.
As such, the World Boxing Council’s choice to strip Charlo and provides him the ‘Champion in Recess’ designation was lengthy overdue, and you may argue that they’ve been greater than truthful to permit him to carry onto his belt all this time with out stripping him.
Some followers consider Jermell ought to have been stripped of his WBC title ages in the past as a result of he’s proven a lot curiosity in defending in opposition to the contenders within the prime 15.
At this level in Charlo’s profession, he’s reportedly solely taken with big-money fights in opposition to the massive names. So, he doubtless wouldn’t have defended the belt in opposition to any of the WBC’s top-tier contenders anyway. He clearly desires a profitable struggle in opposition to Terence Crawford or, ideally, one other good payday conflict in opposition to Canelo Alvarez, which has zero probability of ever taking place.
‘The Towering Inferno’ Fundora (20-1-1, 13 KOs) was viciously knocked out within the seventh spherical final April by Brian Mendoza, and he’s not the best candidate to be scrapping for the vacant WBC 154-lb title in opposition to Bohachuk (23-1, 23 KOs).
It appears unusual that Fundora is being given the possibility to struggle for the belt forward of another contenders within the WBC’s rankings at 154.
