Jermall Charlo has landed a homecoming fight to end his latest ring hiatus.
The Ring has confirmed that the former two-division titlist will return to the ring on Dec. 14. Charlo (33-0, 22 knockouts) will appear on the Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis-Lamont Roach PBC on Prime Pay-Per-View event from Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
An opponent was not yet identified as this goes to 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 was scrambling to replace an injured Nico Collins on his NFL Fantasy Football team and not in a position to comment.
Houston’s Charlo will have been out of the ring for a little more than a year by fight night. He ended a 29-month ring absence with a ten-round win over Jose Benavidez Jr. (28-3-1, 19 KOs) last Nov. 25 in Las Vegas. Charlo missed the agreed-upon weight for the bout, checking at a career-heaviest 166.4 pounds.
With that will come his second straight fight at super middleweight. Charlo previously held the IBF junior middleweight and WBC middleweight titles.
Previous rumors had Charlo potentially facing fellow former two-division titleholder Demetrius Andrade. However, The Ring has confirmed that it was false hope and that such a matchup was never budgeted for the Davis-Roach undercard.
Charlo’s last fight at home came in a June 2021 points win over Juan Macias Montiel (23-6-2, 23 KOs). The bout also took place at Toyota Center, and marked the fourth and final defense of his WBC middleweight title.
Personal issues forced an extended ring break. With it came canceled plans for a June 2022 title defense versus Maciej Sulecki at this very venue.
Charlo was eventually relieved of the WBC 160-pound bout due to an inability to defend versus interim titlist and mandatory challenger Carlos Adames (24-1, 18 KOs). A designation of ‘Champion in Recess’ was bestowed upon Charlo, though he is not due to return to middleweight.
Should this matchup transpire, it will mark the third career fight above 160 for LaManna.
The 32-year-old from the southern part of New Jersey has won eight in a row since a May 2021 knockout loss to Erislandy Lara. The bout come with a secondary version of the WBA middleweight title. Lara was since upgraded to full titlist, 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.
