Jermall Charlo June Defense Off Due To Injury

The anticipated return to the Ring of unbeaten WBC world middleweight champion Jermall Charlo will have to wait a little longer after it was learned that his latest title defense is off due to an injury to the champ.

Showtime Sports and Premier Boxing Champions announced on Monday afternoon that Charlo has suffered a back injury during training for his June 18th scheduled battle with Polish contender Maciej Sulecki .

“The Jermall Charlo vs. Maciej Sulecki event, scheduled to take place Saturday, June 18 live on SHOWTIME from Toyota Center in Houston, has been postponed after Charlo suffered a back injury in training.

The card will be rescheduled to a new date that will be announced pending an assessment of when Charlo can return to training,” the release read.

Our Dan Rafael learned Monday evening that the injury was recently suffered while Charlo was running. The same source says it’s not believed to be a lengthy delay for the re-schedule.

Still, the injury is particularly disappointing as Charlo was unable to secure an early May title bout with undisputed super middleweight champion at Canelo Alvarez.

Alvarez’s contemplated fighting Charlo as part of a two-fight deal with Premier Boxing Champions. However, he decided instead to challenge unbeaten WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol. Bivol subsequently upset Alvarez in their May meeting.

Meanwhile, Charlo had to settle for fighting Sulecki as the headline bout in his hometown of Houston.

Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) would have fought for the fifth time in his career there, having most recently earned an entertaining unanimous decision win over Juan Montiel last June, also on Showtime. The 31-year-old scored an impressive unanimous decision triumph over top middleweight contender Sergiy Derevyanchenko in their September 2020 showdown and owns a 7-0 record since moving up to middleweight in 2017.

A two-division world champion, Charlo also strung together an impressive run at 154-pounds, capturing the IBF title in 2015 and piling up victories over champions Austin Trout, Cornelius Bundrage and Julian Williams, whom he floored three times on his way to a memorable fifth-round knockout.

Charlo’s twin brother Jermell just became the first four belt, undisputed jr. middleweight champ ever last month. That came in his 10th round TKO rematch over Brian Castano in California.