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 in their fight on March 30th on the Tim Tszyu vs. Keith Thurman card on Amazon Prime PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Charlo hasn’t fought at 154 for close to two years since his unification fight with WBO junior middleweight champion Brian Castano in May 2022.
On his social media site, Dan Rafael revealed the news of Jermell being stripped of his WBC 154-lb title and belt being at stake for the Fundora vs. Bohachuk contest on March 30th.
Moreover, the last time Jermell made a title defense of his WBC title was way back in September 2020, when he defeated Jeison Rosario by an eighth-round knockout.
If you’re one of the many contenders in the WBC’s top 15 rankings at 154, it has to be frustrating sitting and waiting for a title shot against a champion who hasn’t defended the belt for close to four solid years.
As such, the World Boxing Council’s decision to strip Charlo and give him the ‘Champion in Recess’ designation was long overdue, and you can argue that they’ve been more than fair to allow him to hold onto his belt all this time without stripping him.
Some fans believe Jermell should have been stripped of his WBC title ages ago because he’s shown much interest in defending against the contenders in the top 15.
At this point in Charlo’s career, he’s reportedly only interested in big-money fights against the big names. So, he likely wouldn’t have defended the belt against any of the WBC’s top-tier contenders anyway. He clearly wants a lucrative fight against Terence Crawford or, ideally, another nice payday clash against Canelo Alvarez, which has zero chance of ever happening.
‘The Towering Inferno’ Fundora (20-1-1, 13 KOs) was viciously knocked out in the seventh round last April by Brian Mendoza, and he’s not the ideal candidate to be scrapping for the vacant WBC 154-lb title against Bohachuk (23-1, 23 KOs).
It looks strange that Fundora is being given the chance to fight for the belt ahead of some other contenders in the WBC’s rankings at 154.