The WBC has stripped Jermall Charlo of his middleweight title and now elevated interim champion Carlos Adames to full champion status.
WBC didn’t give a word as to why they finally made their decision to strip the 33-year-old Jermall of his 160-lb title, but given that he hadn’t defended the belt since June of 2021, that’s a likely reason. His last defense came against Juan Macias Montiel in June 2021.
WBC Statement
“The WBC will closely work with PBC [Premier Boxing Champions] in securing the best course of action to attend to Jermall’s needs at this moment.”
Again, the WBC did not provide details about why it stripped the unbeaten Charlo (33-0, 22 KOs), but it had already given him plenty of time to defend the title in the last three years.
Charlo recently returned to the ring after a long 2+ year layoff and defeated Jose Benavidez Jr. by a 10-round unanimous decision in a fight in the super middleweight division last November. Jermall weighed in at 166 3/4 lbs for that fight.
If Jermall wanted to keep his WBC middleweight title, his fight against Benavidez Jr. would have been the ideal time to defend it. However, with Charlo’s title defense against his mandatory Adames (23-1, 18 KOs) already overdue, it’s unclear if he would have been able to defend his WBC belt against a non-top 15 ranked contender Benavidez Jr.
New Champion: Carlos Adames
Carlos Adames has now ascended to the full WBC middleweight champion status. He’s expected to make a defense of the prestigious WBC green belt in his next fight, and hopefully, he’ll be an active champion.
Adames, 30, is from the Dominican Republic. He has wins over these excellent fighters:
– Juan Macias Montiel
– Sergiy Derevyanchenko
– Julian ‘J-Rock’ Williams
– Patrick Day
– Joshua Conley
Adames’ only career loss came against Patrick Teixeira in an upset 12-round unanimous defeat in 2019. Since that fight, Adames has won his last five contests and captured the WBC interim middleweight title in 2022 with a third-round knockout victory over Juan Macias Montiel.
Questions for Charlo’s Future
The WBC’s announcement, along with Jermall’s recently reported arrest on Tuesday, raises doubts about his future in the sport. Recently, Charlo had talked about retiring. He said he’d be interested in fighting Canelo Alvarez if given the opportunity.
If Jermall decides he needs to continue fighting at some point, we could see him back in the ring.