Jermell Charlo has his next WBC junior middleweight title defense set and it will be against a man who once stood on top of the 154-pound division.
Charlo will defend his title against Austin Trout on June 9 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles as the co-main event to the Leo Santa Cruz vs. Abner Mares rematch for the WBA featherweight title. This will be Charlo's third defense of the world title he had won in 2016. Both fights will be televised live on Showtime.
"The only thing I'm going to tell you about what I'm going to do against Trout is, I'm going to surprise you guys. I plan to show my skills and show why I'm the best at 154 pounds. The most important thing is to make my mark and claim my territory," Charlo said in a press release.
Trout has already fought once this year, a unanimous decision win over Juan De Angel in February. Before that fight, Trout unsuccessfully challenged for the IBF junior middleweight title twice. Trout lost to Jermall Charlo, Jermell's brother, in 2016 before fighting for the title again last October when he lost to Jarrett Hurd in a bout that was a "Fight of the Year" and "Round of the Year" candidate in the 2017 Fightful Boxing Awards.
The winner of the Charlo vs. Trout fight in June could be in line to potentially fight Hurd, now the unified IBF and WBA "super" junior middleweight champion, in a three-belt unification fight. It would be the first time a boxer has held the WBA, WBC and IBF junior middleweight titles since Winky Wright did in 2004.
