16 May 2022

Boxing has finally produced a successor to Floyd Mayweather, who abdicated the Jr. Middleweight throne in in September 2015. Jermell Charlo, ranked #1, stopped #2-ranked Brian Castano in the tenth round after a firefight. Charlo is now the division king. Castano did not lose his ranking despite the loss; in fact, he advances due to Charlo’s ascension, to #1.

Russian Bakhram Murtazaliev takes #10, though not without dissent among members.

Charlo also debuts into the P4P List at #10. Several members thought he deserved a higher spot.

There is a lot of nonsense flying around about how Charlo has now “made history” with his 4-belt unification win. Don’t believe the hype. A closer look reminds us of the folly of following belts: 

1. Charlo won the IBF belt. We can trace that succession -loosely termed- back to February 2017 when Jarrett Hurd fought Tony Harrison for the vacant “championship.” Neither Hurd nor Harrison were ranked at the time. How then, could the winner of that bout (Hurd) be recognized as a champion when there were at least ten more deserving contenders ahead of him and his challenger? 

2. Charlo won the WBC belt. We can trace that succession to May 2016, when Charlo defeated John Jackson for the vacant belt. The problem is that Charlo was ranked #4, while Jackson was not ranked at all. 

3. Charlo won the WBO belt. That one goes back to February 2021, when Castano defeated Patrick Teixeira for the vacant belt. Castano was ranked #5 and Teixeira #9. That is rightly considered a bout between contenders and nothing more.

4. Charlo won the WBA “Super World Super Welterweight” title. That’s a hard one to trace and so silly a belt, who wants too?

Meanwhile, at Lightweight, undefeated William Zepeda gets a so-so win over Rene Alvarado, but it’s enough to bump out Shuichiro Yoshino at #10.     

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