Jermall Charlo targets world title at 168 pounds in July fight

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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MAY 31: Jermall Charlo poses with referee Mark Nelson after defeating LaManna in a super middleweight bout at Michelob ULTRA Arena on May 31, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Charlo won by TKO after the fifth round when a ringside physician advised LaManna should not continue. (Photo by Steve Marcus/Getty Images) | Getty Images Jermall Charlo says he’s aiming to win another world title, this time at 168 lbs, and that he has belief he’ll be able to come back from another spell on the sidelines and continue to dominate. Charlo will face Koen Mazoudier on July 25 in Australia, part of the Errol Spence vs Tim Tszyu undercard. “I’m one of the few fighters that have barely lost any rounds in my career, let alone lost a fight,” he told PBC from training camp. “It’s my game plan to just go out there and dominate. If [Mazoudier] makes the wrong move, he’s gonna get knocked out.” Charlo, 36, says he’s putting his trust in trainer Ronnie Shields to study and prepare the game plan, a move he notes is unusual, as he usually likes to study opponents himself. “I want to go for another world title in a third weight division. I feel a lot more comfortable at 168,” Charlo said. “It really doesn’t matter who they put in front of me, I feel like I’m gonna have my advantages in this division. I’m planning to make this quarter of my career the best one.” Charlo won his first world title at 154 lbs in 2015, beating Cornelius “K9” Bundrage to win the IBF title. After three successful defenses, he won the interim WBC middleweight title in 2018, and in 2019 was promoted to full titleholder status. But this decade has not been the best for Charlo. He started it well, with a career-best and clear victory over Sergiy Derevyanchenko in 2020, but since then has fought just three times — once in 2021, once in 2023, and once in 2025, none of them against opponents considered a real threat to beat him. The same will be true against Mazoudier (15-4-1, 6 KO), as the 30-year-old Aussie is not a world-level fighter, and is also moving up two divisions from 154 lbs for this fight. We’ve heard this same sort of talk from Charlo several times in the last few years. He drops out of sight, comes back, wins a mid-level fight that’s been dressed up as world-class as a heavy favorite against an over-matched underdog, and then drops out of sight again. We’ll see if anything changes this time, but the pattern has become pretty obvious.

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Jermall Charlo says he’s back in the hunt, now at 168, but will his pattern change?