Notebook: Charlo 'in recess'; Fundora-Bohachuk for vacant belt
Date set for Inoue-Nery; William Zepeda's next fight official; TR rounds out March 2 undercard; another title fight on 1st PBC Amazon card; Quick hits; Show and tell
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The WBC announced on Friday that it has stripped Jermell Charlo of its junior middleweight title and re-classified him as a “champion in recess,” which gives him the right to immediately challenge for the title upon his return if that is he what he wants to do.
On Thursday, Premier Boxing Champions announced the kickoff event of its new deal with Amazon Prime Video with Sebastian Fundora against Serhii Bohachuk for the vacant WBC interim title as the opener of the pay-per-view card headlined by Tim Tszyu against Keith Thurman on March 30 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Hours after the card was announced, the WBC voted to re-classify Charlo and upgrade Fundora-Bohachuk to be for the vacant title.
Mauricio Sulaiman, the president of the WBC, explained the decision to Fight Freaks Unite.
“Jermell Charlo’s last fight was held at 168 pounds and we have not been able to confirm whether he will return to 154 or not,” Sulaiman said. “He’s involved in a legal situation as we have been advised. We’re also waiting for the status of that situation and the fight between Fundora and Bohachuk has been approved for a long time. So, as not having full knowledge of what is happening with Jermell, the WBC has decided to place him as champion in recess and we will proceed with this fight for the championship of the world.”
The legal situation Sulaiman referenced stems from Charlo being arrested in December in the Houston area and being charged with misdemeanor assault causing bodily injury to a family member. The public records did not name the alleged victim but Chyane Westbrook, Charlo’s wife, has filed for divorce and also for a temporary restraining order against him, according to court records.
The WBC decision leaves the once-undisputed 154-pound champion Charlo with only the WBA title of the four sanctioning body belts he unified in 2022 to become the division’s first-ever undisputed champion of the four-belt era.
Charlo (35-2-1, 19 KOs), 33, of Houston, vacated the IBF title hours before a Nov. 21 purse bid rather than fulfill a long-standing mandatory obligation to Bakhram Murtazaliev.
Charlo had been out of the ring for 16 months when he moved up to super middleweight to challenge undisputed 168-pound champion Canelo Alvarez in what became a one-sided decision loss on Sept. 30. He knew ahead of time that he would be stripped of the WBO title when the bell rang and Tszyu would be upgraded from interim to full titleholder.
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Inoue-Nery on May 6
Undisputed junior featherweight champion and 2023 consensus fighter of the year Naoya Inoue’s WBC mandatory defense against former two-division titlist Luis Nery, which is already signed, is being planned for May 6 (morning on ESPN+ in U.S.) at the Tokyo Dome, sources with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite.
The stadium was also the site of Buster Douglas’ iconic upset knockout of Mike Tyson to win the undisputed heavyweight title in 1990.
However, before the fight can be made official, Nery, who is infamous in Japan, must have an indefinite suspension by the Japanese Boxing Commission lifted, which those involved told Fight Freaks Unite is a formality.
In August 2017, Nery traveled to Japan and knocked out Shinsuke Yamanaka in the fourth round to win the WBC bantamweight title. But he failed a Voluntary Anti-Doping Association-administered drug test as part of the WBC’s Clean Boxing Program when he tested positive for the banned substance zilpaterol in a sample provided before the fight but whose results were not known until after the bout.
Nery claimed the positive test was due to tainted beef in Mexico — a common problem there — and after investigating the matter, the WBC issued a ruling in which it said that it believed that the positive test result was indeed a result of food contamination. While the WBC did not strip Nery of the title it ordered him to give Yamanaka a rematch.
In the March 2018 rematch, Nery knocked out Yamanaka in the second round but he had been stripped of the title for badly missing weight by coming in at 121 pounds, three over the 118-pound limit.
Nery missing weight was a tremendous scandal in Japan and, coupled with his previous positive drug test from the first fight, the JBC banned him indefinitely.
On Dec. 26, Inoue (26-0, 23 KOs), 30, Japan’s biggest boxing star, knocked out Marlon Tapales in the 10th round of a hard-fought, but one-sided bout, to retain the WBC and WBO belts for the first time and win the IBF and WBA 122-pound titles to become the first-ever undisputed 122-pound champion of the three- or four-belt era at Ariake Arena in Tokyo.
He also joined Terence Crawford as the only male boxers to become an undisputed champion in two divisions in the four-belt era. Inoue had also done it bantamweight in 2022.
At its annual convention last fall, the WBC ordered the Inoue-Tapales winner to make a mandatory defense in their next fight against Nery (35-1, 27 KOs), 29, a Mexican southpaw.
Nery became Inoue’s WBC mandatory challenger last February when he stopped Azat Hovhannisyan in the 11th round of an epic battle in a title eliminator that was the 2023 Fight Freaks Unite fight of the year.
Zepeda vs. Hughes official
Lightweight knockout machine William Zepeda will face Maxi Hughes in an IBF and WBA title eliminator that will headline a Golden Boy card on March 16 (DAZN) at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, Golden Boy announced on Friday, confirming last week’s Fight Freaks Unite report.
“Zepeda is a wrecking ball every time he steps into the ring — and with a title shot hanging in the balance, fans are going to be in for an offensive barrage from ‘El Camaron,’” Golden Boy CEO Oscar De La Hoya said. “Maxi Hughes has been in with the best of the best, and if Zepeda gets past him, the sky's the limit.”
The winner will be in position to challenge for the vacant IBF title or Gervonta Davis, the WBA titleholder.
“I am excited for this big challenge ahead of me, and being one step closer to accomplishing my dream of becoming a world champion,” Zepeda said. “Maxi Hughes is a grand fighter, and I can’t wait to face him and represent my humble hometown of San Mateo Atenco (Mexico) on the world stage. I know Golden Boy wants to bring big fights back to Las Vegas, the capital of boxing, and I want to be part of that.”
Zepeda (29-0, 25 KOs), 27, is coming off a one-sided sixth-round destruction of Mercito Gesta in September. In his last fight, England’s Hughes (26-6-2, 5 KOs), 33, gave former unified lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. all he could handle in a disputed majority decision loss in July.
“My last fight in the U.S., the judges broke my heart,” Hughes said. “I won’t let them derail my career. I’m coming back stateside with the bit between my teeth. Zepeda hasn’t fought anyone like me before.”
BetUS Boxing Show
If you missed the BetUS Boxing Show live at 1 p.m. ET on Friday on YouTube, please check out the replay (and also subscribe to the YouTube channel). We previewed and picked the top two fights on Golden Boy’s card Saturday on DAZN: super middleweight Jaime Munguia versus John Ryder and WBO strawweight titlist Oscar Collazo’s defense against Reyneris Gutierrez. We also took viewer questions and comments and discussed the latest boxing news! Please check out the show here:
Kholmatov-Ford undercard
Top Rank announced the undercard for its featherweight world title doubleheader set for March 2 (ESPN+) at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York, where Otabek Kholmatov and Raymond Ford will meet for the vacant WBA title in the main event and Luis Alberto Lopez will defend the IBF title against mandatory challenger Reiya Abe.
In the top bout before the two title fights, welterweight Brian Norman Jr. (25-0, 19 KOs), 23, of Decatur, Georgia, will face Janelson Bocachica (17-2-1, 11 KOs), 25, of Detroit, in a 10-rounder.
Also on the card:
Cincinnati featherweight Duke Ragan (9-0, 1 KO), a 2020 U.S. Olympic silver medalist, will fight Colombia’s Brandon Valdes (15-4, 7 KOs) in an eight-rounder.
Junior welterweight Rohan Polanco (11-0, 7 KOs), a 2020 Olympian from the Dominican Republic, will face Mexico-based Morocco native Tarik Zaina (13-0-1, 8 KOs) over eight rounds.
Middleweight Troy Isley (11-0, 4 KOs), a 2020 U.S. Olympian from Alexandria, Virginia, will face Fresno, California’s Marcos Hernandez (16-6-2, 3 KOs) in an eight-rounder.
Lakeland, Florida, heavyweight prospect Brandon Moore (13-0, 8 KOs) will face Mexico’s Helaman Olguin (9-6-1, 4 KOs) in an eight-rounder.
Bantamweight Floyd Diaz (10-0, 3 KOs), of Las Vegas, meets Puerto Rico’s Edwin Rodriguez (12-7-2, 5 KOs) in eight-rounder.
Middleweight Nico Ali Walsh (9-1, 5 KOs), 23, of Las Vegas, the grandson of Muhammad Ali, will meet an opponent to be determined in a six-rounder.
Liverpool, New York, junior middleweight Bryce Mills (14-1, 5 KOs), will fight in his home region against Gerffred Ngayot (6-1, 5 KOs) in a six.
Quick hits
Weights from Phoenix for the Golden Boy show Saturday on DAZN (8 p.m. ET): Jaime Munguia 167.8 pounds, John Ryder 167.8; Oscar Collazo 105, Reyneris Gutierrez 104.8 (for Collazo’s WBO strawweight title); Darius Fulghum 167.2, Alantez Fox 168.6; Gabriela Fundora 111.2, Christina Cruz 111.6 (for Fundora’s IBF women’s flyweight title); David Picasso Romero 126, Erik Ruiz 124; Daniel Garcia 131.8, Daniel Lugo 131; Gregory Morales 128.6, Ronal Ron 128.2; Gael Cabrera 120.8, Miguel Ceballos 122.8; Jonathan Canas 135.8, Kameeko Hall 137.6.
Weights from Belfast, Northern Ireland, for the Matchroom Boxing show Saturday on DAZN (2 p.m. ET): Lewis Crocker 150 pounds (missed contract weight by 3 pounds; fight goes on, penalty undisclosed), Jose Felix 146.6; Cheavon Clarke 199.6, Tommy McCarthy 199.4; Paddy Donovan 146.4, William Andres Hererra 146.6; Conah Walker 146.4, Lloyd Germain 146.6; Giorgio Visioli 133.2, Samuel Pikire 133.5; Kurt Walker 133.2, Darwing Martinez 130.6; Leli Buttigieg 158.5, Artjom Spatar 157.5.
While it is not official yet, another world title fight is expected to be part of the first PBC card on its deal with Amazon Prime Video that will be headline by Tim Tszyu-Keith Thurman on March 30 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. WBC flyweight titlist Julio Cesar Martinez will face Angelino Cordova in one of the bouts that will stream for free on Prime Video ahead of the start of the pay-per-view, a source with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite. Martinez (20-2, 15 KOs), 29, of Mexico, who has made six defenses, and Cordova (18-0-1, 12 KOs), 28, of Venezuela, were scheduled to fight Dec. 16 on the Showtime finale in Minneapolis, but the bout was postponed because Martinez had issues obtaining his visa in time. PBC announced at the time that the fight would be “rescheduled for next year.”
Bakhram Murtazaliev (21-0, 15 KOs), 30, of Russia, and Jack Culcay (33-4, 14 KOs), 38, of Germany, will meet for the vacant IBF junior middleweight title April 6 at Stadthalle Falkansee in Falkansee, Germany, about an hour outside of Berlin, Agon Sports announced. Agon, which promotes Culcay, won a Jan. 11 purse bid for $666,300 to gain control of the bout with the fighters splitting the winning bid 50-50 ($333,150 each). Murtazaliev’s team is enraged about the date because it falls during Ramadan, which Murtazaliev, a Muslim, will observe. Murtazaliev’s team told Fight Freaks Unite that although they can’t control the date, the IBF specifically asked Agon to be “mindful” of Murtazaliev’s religious observance when scheduling the bout. Jermell Charlo vacated the title hours before a Nov. 21 purse bid rather than fulfill a long-standing mandatory obligation to Murtazaliev, who took multiple step-aside deals to allow Charlo to engage in other bouts.
Irish junior middleweight prospect Callum Walsh (9-0, 7 KOs), 22, who is trained by Hall of Famer Freddie Roach and was on the Fight Freaks Unite top 15 prospects list for 2023, will face Dauren Yeleussinov (11-3-1, 10 KOs), 37, of Kazakhstan, in a 10-rounder on March 15 (UFC Fight Pass), 360 Promotions’ Tom Loeffler announced. The bout, on St. Patrick’s Day weekend, will be Walsh’s second consecutive fight as the headliner at New York’s Theater at Madison Square Garden, where a heavy Irish crowd is expected. “Callum follows in the footsteps of some of Ireland’s biggest stars — John Duddy, Andy Lee, Matthew Macklin and Michael Conlan — with fighting at Madison Square Garden on St. Patrick’s Day weekend and we expect to welcome back the loyal Irish fans,” MSG vice president Joel Fisher said.
Former junior lightweight titlist Joseph Diaz Jr. will face Jesus “Ricky” Perez on Feb. 15 (DAZN, 9 p.m. ET) in the 10-round junior welterweight main event of a “Golden Boy Fight Night” card at Commerce Casino & Hotel in Commerce, California, Golden Boy announced. Diaz, who has missed weight for several recent bouts at lightweight, is contracted for the bout at 139 pounds, Golden Boy told Fight Freaks Unite. Downey, California’s Diaz (33-4-1, 15 KOs), 31, ended a three-fight losing streak with a 10-round decision over Jerry Perez in July. Perez (24-5, 18 KOs), 26, of Mexico, has lost two in a row and three of his last four but all went the distance. In the co-feature, flyweight Ricardo Sandoval (23-2, 16 KOs), 24, of Rialto, California, will face an opponent to be determined in a 10-rounder.
The Atlantic City Boxing Hall of Fame announced the class of 2024, which will be inducted Sept. 29 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. The 21-person class includes in the fighter category James “Buster” Douglas, Sergio Martinez, Paul Williams, Gerry Cooney, Mark Breland, Sharmba Mitchell, Tyrone Mitchell Frazier, Mario Maldonado and Eva Jones-Young; contributors James “Buddy” McGirt (trainer), Bruce Blair (trainer), Sampson Lewkowicz (manager/promoter), Eric Bottjer (matchmaker), Randy Gordon (media), Guy Gargan (media); three boxers in the pioneers group, Eric Seelig, George Godfrey and Joey Giardello; and posthumous honors for fighter Howard Davis Jr., Showtime executive Jay Larkin and referee Eddie Cotton.
Show and tell
“Sugar” Shane Mosley, a former dominant lightweight champion, had moved up in weight and three fights later outpointed Oscar De La Hoya to take the WBC welterweight title in an all-time classic fight. He blasted through three title challengers and was widely viewed as the pound-for-pound king, but there was a clamor for him to face another elite opponent. Enter Vernon Forrest, a 1992 U.S. Olympian, who had earned his spot on Team USA by beating Mosley in an upset that kept him from going to Barcelona. As a pro, Forrest was undefeated and won the IBF welterweight title but didn’t have a big name, had no fan following and struggled for significant fights. So, rather than make a low-profile mandatory defense, he gave up his belt for the opportunity to face Mosley, who was very confident he would avenge the amateur loss in a highly anticipated fight.
They met in a major HBO main event — Arturo Gatti, my all-time favorite fighter, who was coming off a battering by De La Hoya, knocked out Terron Millett in the fourth round in the co-feature — at the sold-out Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York, and a shocking scene unfolded.
Forrest (33-0 at the time), who was murdered in 2009, blasted Mosley (38-0) with a series of clean shots and knocked him down twice in the second round. He had never remotely been in trouble before much less down or even close to it. I was ringside covering the card for USA Today and distinctly remember that when Mosley went down for the first time the entire crowd of about 5,000 pretty much went “Ohhhhhhhh!!!!!” at the exact same time. I can still hear it in my mind’s eye and never quite heard that sort of crowd reaction before or since. Mosley was tough as nails and had a warrior’s heart and hung in there, but he took a beating. Jack Mosley, his father and trainer, at one point was standing on the ring steps to my left ready to throw in the towel when Mosley’s cutman, Cassius Green, literally yanked him down and wouldn’t let him. Mosley ultimately went the distance but the outcome was never in doubt as Forrest won 118-108, 117-108 and 115-110 to take the title in an upset. It was the crowning moment of Forrest’s career, even bigger than when he outpointed Mosley again in their immediate rematch six months later. The first fight took place on Jan. 26, 2002 — 22 years ago on Friday. Here is an HBO poster from the fight in my collection.
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Photos: Charlo: PBC; Inoue: Naoki Fukuda; Munguia-Ryder: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing
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Zepeda Hughes will be a good fight Hughes should of beat kambosas but he got robbed
The undercard on prime will be better than the ppv card. I love watching zepeda. I'm not sure he can win a title with the current 135 pound landscape but I'll always watch his fights.