Jermall Charlo has not defended his title in 19 months, but still remains champion.
Charlo was supposed to defend his WBC middleweight strap against Maciej Sulecki on June 18, but that was canceled after the champion reportedly suffered a back injury during the training. The fight was never rescheduled.
“Charlo said he injured his back and withdrew. He hasn’t defended his WBC middleweight title since June 2021. Carlos Adames, the interim champ, is waiting for his shot,” ESPN’s Mike Coppinger tweeted.
That bout was supposed to take place in June. Charlo said he injured his back and withdrew. He hasn’t defended his WBC middleweight title since June 2021. Carlos Adames, the interim champ, is waiting for his shot.
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) January 22, 2023
Charlo has defended his belt successfully just four times since he was elevated from interim champion to world champion in 2019.
The twin Charlo brother last fought in June 2021 against Juan Macias Montiel. He recorded another successful defense by a 12-round unanimous decision.
But there has yet to be word about Charlo’s progress and the WBC has not made any push to force the middleweight titleholder to set something up.
Adames, on the other hand, fought three times in 2021 and went 3-0 against Brahian Jose Medina, Alexis Salazar Flores and Sergiy Derevyanchenko. He fought once in 2022, which was against Montiel; there he picked up the WBC interim world middleweight title.
A press release that was posted following the news of Charlo’s injury said that the card would be “rescheduled to a new date that will be announced pending an assessment of when Charlo can return to training.”