WBC Middleweight champion and Houston Native Jermall Charlo is set to return to the ring. Stephen Espinoza, of Showtime Sports, made a major announcement concerning the elder Charlo twin. He will defend his WBC title against long-time Polish contender Maciej Sulecki on June 18th in Houston. A venue has not been selected yet. However, the Toyota center seems most likely as the Houston Rockets will be long over. It will be one day short of a full year since Jermall Charlo steppedinto the ring. He last fought on June 19th, 2021, and dominated Juan Macias Montiel, also in Houston, at the Toyota Center. Charlo scored a wide unanimous decision over a game and rugged Montiel.
Charlo won the WBC middleweight interim belt in 2018 and was awaiting a showdown with Canelo Alvarez. That fight never came to fruition. Canelo was tagged "Franchise Champion" and Charlo was promoted to WBC world champion. He defended the initial defense of his strap against Brandon Adams in Houston and has defended three more times since. Once in Brooklyn, once in Connecticut, and then in Houston. He will return to H-Town to battle Sulecki who sports a 30-2 (11) record and has been a top 10 middleweight for several years. He has had one other major world title shot, back in June of 2019 he dropped a lopsided decision to Demetrius Andrade for the WBO strap in Andrade's hometown of Providence, Rhode Island. It was the second loss of the Polish contender's career. He has scored two tune-up victories in his two-fight since the Andrade loss. Most recently he outpointed in an eight-round affair in Poland back in December.
Charlo was long rumored to be in advanced talks with Golden Boy's middleweight and fan-favorite Jaime Munguia. In what was a highly anticipated fight, talks fell apart at the last minute. Munguia has a large following throughout the Lone Star State, having fought not only in Houston but having sold well in San Antonio and El Paso as well. Fans almost unanimously wanted the Munguia fight and the initial reaction to the Sulecki fight was not positive at all.