Is Jermell Charlo’s Return a Mistake? Two Years of Inactivity, Lingering Doubts, and the Challenge of 154’s Elite

Jermell Charlo will resume his career late this summer. The former undisputed junior middleweight champion Charlo (35-2-1, 19 KOs) has taken a two-year vacation since getting a big payday in a fight against Canelo Alvarez on September 30, 2023.

Title Shot?

It’s believed that Jermell will target one of the champions at 154, with WBC and WBO champ Sebastian Fundora being the likely champ he fights.

Lance Pugmire reports that promoter Tom Brown says Charlo, 34, will be coming back “late summer.”

It would obviously look bad if Charlo gets a straight title shot coming off a two-year layoff and a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision loss to Canelo. He should at least fight the top contender in the rankings, like Serhii Bohachuk or Xander Zayas.

IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev won’t be the choice because Charlo never showed any interest in fighting him when he was his mandatory. He’s certainly not going to want to fight him after a two-year layoff and have to deal with the IBF’s 10-lb rehydration rule.

It’s questionable if Jermell will be able to make it through training camp without suffering some kind of injury. We all remember how Tim Tszyu had problems trying to get a title shot against Charlo when he held the WBO title and suffered a hand injury. Jermell then moved up to 154 to challenge Canelo for his belts, leaving Tszyu with having wasted time trying to get a fight against him.

Riyadh Dreams?

It would be interesting to know why Jermell Charlo has decided to resume his career all of a sudden. Is he hoping that there will be interest in him for the Riyadh Season cards?

When one hears about Ryan Garcia making $20 million to headline against Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero in a tune-up on the May 2nd card, that could have planted some ideas into Jermell’s head.

Ryan is young, popular with a massive following on social media, easy to understand, and reliable. Charlo’s last performance was terrible against Canelo, and he didn’t look good in his fights against Brian Castano and Tony Harrison.

Fans that weren’t around when Jermell fought those guys won’t mind him coming back. But if you’ve followed his career from the beginning, you’ll know that he’s overrated and won’t beat any of the top fighters at 154.