WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo will be returning to action after a long 12-month layoff to face #6 WBC contender Maciel Sulecki on June 18th in the main event bout on Showtime Championship Boxing in Houston, Texas.
Sulecki (30-2, 11 KOs) has been picked for Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) after his promoters were unable to set up bigger fights against Jaime Munguia and Canelo Alvarez.
All that was left after they whiffed on trying to get those two fights made was the 32-year-old Sulecki, who stepped up a couple of times in the big stage in losses to Danny Jacobs and Demetrius Andrade.
Sulecki is obviously a disappointing choice for Charlo to be fighting because boxing fans want to see an upgrade in the opposition from the WBC champion rather than him continuing to face mediocre fighters.
Some boxing fans are under the impression that Jermall, 31, is looking to milk his WBC title for as long as he can to keep the revenue stream going without risk.
If Charlo moves up to 168 to fight Canelo Alvarez for his undisputed championship, he won’t be risking his WBC 160-lb belt. So even if Jermall loses to Canelo, he’ll still be WBC middleweight champion.
Sulecki looked abysmal in losing to Demetrius Andrade in 2019 in challenging him for his WBO middleweight title. Since then, Sulecki has won his last two fights against journeyman-level opposition.
Brian Custer: “On Juneteenth, something that Jermall Charlo started just last year, he said he wanted to continue to do that, make it an annual thing to fight on Juneteenth, which is obviously very big in Texas. He has his fight against Maciej Sulecki. So talk to me about Jermall Charlo defending his [WBC] title at 160.”
Stephen Espinoza: “Yeah, the reality is and there’s been a lot of discussions and I’m sure there will be a lot of questions when we get to the media portion of this about Charlo’s journey to this fight [with Maciej Sulecki], and I’m happy to discuss those.
“The reality is that when a Super Fight like Canelo vs. Jermall Charlo falls apart you just have to regroup and move to the next best thing, whether it’s going to be [Jaime] Munguia or in this case Sulecki.
“Sulecki is a proven contender, a veteran. He only has two losses to the best guys in the division in Danny Jacobs and Billy Joe Saunders [correction: Demetrius Andrade, NOT Saunders. Sulecki NEVER fought Saunders].
“So, this is, I know everybody wanted Canelo vs. Charlo. I still want that too. I know Jermall and everybody wants that fight is a really good alternative here and a quality task in Houston.”
Brian Custer: “Before we move on, I want to ask you about Munguia because it seemed as if Charlo-Munguia was going to happen. Do you think Munguia and his team wanted that fight?”
Stephen Espinoza: “I have no doubt that Munguia wants that fight. First of all, I would never question the heart of a fighter, and certainly not someone as accomplished as Munguia. But Munguia had a deal, he had reached a deal and accepted the terms of the fight.
“So, I have no doubts that he negotiated out and accepted it and said, ‘Okay, I’m willing to participate in this fight in these terms. So for us, his part was done, he accepted the fight.
“Things broke down over networks and Munguia’s promoters [Golden Boy Promotion] requested to bring in another platform [DAZN] for us [Showtime] to collaborate with and we can get into some of the details of that.
“But the reality is, it didn’t make sense. We tried to make some concessions. You know, alternating that we get the fight, and Munguia’s network [DAZN] can get the rematch.
“Ultimately, that never got anywhere, and we weren’t able to reach an agreement. So, we’ve got to move on and get Jermall the best available fight after that.”
Brian Custer: “Sometimes it’s said in this sport that the promoters when they get involved, things go left.”
