Negotiations have started for a unification clash between IBF/WBA light middleweight champion Jeison ‘Banana’ Rosario (20-1-1, 14 KOs) and WBC champ Jermell Charlo (33-1, 17 KOs) for late September, according to ESPN. All three titles – IBF, WBA & WBC – will be on the line for this exciting match-up.
ESPN says the talks are “moving well” between the management for the 30-year-old Charlo and Rosario. Jeison’s management made a request to the International Boxing Federation to delay his mandatory defense, which is due, and it’s been accepted. It’s now all steam ahead for Charlo vs. Rosario in September.
The promoters still need to get this fight negotiated, and we’ll be seeing one of the best matches since the Erislandy Lara vs. Jarrett Hurd contest in 2018. Many boxing fans on social media are already picking Jermell, 30, to defeat Rosario, but we’ll have to see how this one goes.
Jermell avenged his earlier loss to Tony Harrison in stopping him in the 11th round last December in their rematch in Ontario, Califrnia.
Rosario has the power to win
Jeison is a big puncher, and he recently dethroned Julian ‘J-Rock’ Williams by a fifth-round upset stoppage last January in Liacouras Center, in Philadelphia. J-Rock was confident ahead of the fight, giving Rosario no chance of beating him.
Indeed, the boxing public saw Rosario as being over-matched against Williams, but he shocked the world in hurting J-Rock in round five and quickly knocking him out.
You can rest assured, Rosario isn’t going to try and outbox Charlo in September. He’s going to be throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the 30-year-old Charlo, looking to knock him out and take his WBC belt.
Jeison looked impressive the way that came into Philadelphia last January and battered the hometown fighter Julian ‘J-Rock’, Williams. Few people believed that Rosario had it in him to beat the heavily favored J-Rock the way he did in that fight.
What threw fans off is the sixth round technical loss that Jeison suffered against Nathaniel Gallimore in 2017. Gallimore both outboxed and outslugged Rosario in that fight, and left no doubts who the better fighter of the two was at the end.
Rosario was only 22 at the time, and he’s improved dramatically since then in winning his last six fights.
Gallimore, 32, has seen his own career crumble to pieces, losing three out of his last four fights. If Rosario were to fight Gallimore now, it would likely be a massacre because Jeison is stronger now, and his stamina issues are behind him.
The winner of the Charlo vs. Rosario fight will attempt to unify the 154-lb division against WBO champion Patrick Teixeira. If they can’t get him to agree to a fight, then one of these excellent fighters will be an option:
- Erickson Luin
- Erislandy Lara
- Jarrett Hurd
- Israil Madrimov
- Brian Carlos Castano
- Tony Harrison
- Tim Tszyu