Despite the message of WBO President Paco Valcarcel, it is not at all a fact that the absolute champion of the first middleweight (up to 69.9 kg) American Jermell Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs) will make his debut defense of all belts against the contender for this version of the Australian Tim Tszyu (21-0, 15 KOs).
Charlo has other potential rivals – compatriot Sebastian Fundora from the WBC and Russian Bakhram Murtazaliev from the IBF. The latter, by the way, has been waiting for his attempt since November 2019 – he beat Jorge Fortea from Spain in the eliminator. Since then, he has already received compensation from the champion three times – first he allowed Charlo to unify with Jason Rosario, and then twice in a row to determine the absolute with Brian Castagno.
For the 4th time, Murtazaliev, apparently, will not accept compensation, because Charlo signed a contract back in January, promising a fight to the Russian. Challenger’s lawyer Pat English
already applied with a reminder of this to the WBO and Charlo’s promoter Tom Brown (TGB Promotions): “The contract says that the winner of the rematch of Charlo – Castaño is obliged to decide on plans within 10 days – to fight Murtazaliev or to vacate the title.”
English coolly defends the position of his client: “Pay attention to the fact that Murtazaliev became the mandatory challenger before Tszyu appeared in the WBO ratings. So there’s nothing to argue about here – candidate rotation system definitely in favor of Bahram. I know that the WBO has never violated rotation system. Let me remind you that the system itself was adopted even before the WBO was officially recognized by the rest of the boxing organizations.
Rotation system mandatory applicants means that if there are several candidates from different organizations, preference is given to the one that has won its status earlier than the others.
English claims that in the contract signed by Charlo there is a clause stating that if the champion does not announce his decision within 10 days, this means that he will meet with Murtazaliev.
Interestingly, Charlo will soon have another candidate: Madrimov and Soro will have a rematch on the undercard of the Chisora-Pulev 2 show.
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