Jermall Charlo embarked on a homecoming fight to end his latest ring hiatus.
The Ring has confirmed that the former two-division title roster will return to the ring on December 14th. Charlo (33-0, 22 KOs) will appear on the Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis-Lamont Roach PBC on Prime Pay-Per-View. event from Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
An opponent has not yet been identified as of publication. However, The Ring has learned that the leading candidate is Thomas ‘Cornflake’ LaManna (38-5-1, 17 KOs). Such a fight would take place at the full super middleweight limit.
PBC creator Al Haymon struggled to replace an injured Nico Collins on his NFL Fantasy Football team and was in no position to comment.
Houston’s Charlo will have been out of the ring for a little over a year by fight night. He ended a 29-month absence with a ten-round victory over Jose Benavidez Jr. (28-3-1, 19 KOs) last Nov. 25 in Las Vegas. Charlo missed the agreed-upon weight for the match, weighing in at a career-heaviest 166.4 pounds.
Along with that will come his second straight fight at super middleweight. Charlo previously held the IBF junior middleweight and WBC middleweight titles.
Previous rumors have Charlo potentially facing fellow former two-division titleholder Demetrius Andrade. However, The Ring confirmed that this was false hope and that such a match was never budgeted for the Davis-Roach undercard.
Charlo’s last fight at home was a points victory over Juan Macias Montiel (23-6-2, 23 KOs) in June 2021. The fight also took place at Toyota Center and was the fourth and final defense of his WBC middleweight title.
Personal issues forced an extended ring hiatus. With that came canceled plans for a June 2022 title defense against Maciej Sulecki at this very venue.
Charlo was ultimately relieved of the WBC 160-pound bout due to an inability to defend against interim titleholder and mandatory challenger Carlos Adames (24-1, 18 KOs). A ‘Champion in Recess’ designation was awarded to Charlo, although he will not be returning to middleweight.
Should this match happen, it would be the third career fight above 160 for LaManna.
The 32-year-old from southern New Jersey has won eight in a row since a May 2021 knockout loss to Erislandy Lara. The bout comes with a secondary version of the WBA middleweight title. Lara has since been upgraded to full title roster, while LaManna has been on the comeback trail.
In his most recent start, LaManna scored a second-round knockout of the normally serviceable Juan Carlos Abreu (26-8-1, 24 KOs). Their June 8 clash took place in LaManna’s home region of Atlantic City.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for The Ring and vice president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
