Just 12 days before his planned return to the ring against Maciej Sulecki, WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo has been forced to withdraw due to a back injury.
The card will be “rescheduled to a new date that will be announced pending an assessment of when Charlo can return to training.” The wording suggests that the undercard, which includes Frank Martin vs. Ricardo Nunez and Ra’eese Aleem vs. Mike Plania, will go with it.
Charlo (32-0, 22 KO) has managed just two fights since his December 2019 beatdown of Dennis Hogan, overpowering Sergiy Derevyanchenko in 2020 and Juan Macias Montiel in 2021. He’d been in talks for a big-name showdown with Jaime Munguia, but they collapsed over broadcast issues with Munguia’s team.
Nobody was really clamoring to see him fight Sulecki (30-2, 11 KO), who’d fallen short in previous major bouts against Daniel Jacobs and Demetrius Andrade, so it’s a bit surprising to see them looking to reschedule instead of pursuing a grudge match with David Benavidez or, well, an actual contender. Alas, it seems like that’s still the plan.