Jermall Charlo Pulls Out Again: Third Fight in Six Years Falls Apart

Jermall Charlo is out again. The undefeated former middleweight titlist (34-0, 23 KO) has withdrawn from his October 17 matchup with Kane Mazoudier on the Sebastian Fundora vs Ermal Hadribeaj card in Las Vegas, citing injury. It's the second time in three months the same fight has fallen through.

The first collapse came this summer, when Charlo couldn't secure a visa for a planned bout in New South Wales. PBC salvaged the local angle — Mazoudier's Australian appeal was essentially the whole pitch — by dragging it stateside to the Fundora card. Didn't matter. Charlo-proofing the booking only works if Charlo actually shows up, and once again he won't.

Do the math and it's bleak reading. Charlo has fought three times in six years. For a fighter who built a reputation as one of the sharper 160-pounders of his era, that's not a layoff, it's a slow fade.

Resendiz Steps In

The replacement is former WBA super middleweight titlist Jose Armando Resendiz (16-3, 11 KO), currently ranked #7 at 168. Resendiz pulled off a split-decision upset of Caleb Plant for the belt last year, then dropped it in his first defense to Jaime Munguia by unanimous decision. He's coming off that loss, but he's a natural middleweight and a far more credible opponent than a blown-up super welterweight like Mazoudier.

It's still not a marquee fight. Mazoudier (16-4-1, 6 KO) carries just six stoppages across 21 bouts, and Resendiz is essentially a step-up test without the belt stakes. But as a short-notice patch on a card that keeps losing its headline act, it'll do.

The rest of the undercard holds. Brandon Figueroa defends his WBA featherweight title against Tomoki Kameda — Figueroa (27-2-1, 20 KO) is fresh off a 12th-round TKO of Nick Ball, so there's at least one genuinely intriguing fight left standing when the lights go up in Vegas.