By Carlos Boogs

Last month, Jermall Charlo vacated the IBF junior middleweight title and announced his official move to the middleweight division.

Charlo (25-0, 19 KOs) felt it was time to climb up in weight after finishing off 2016 with a twelve round decision win over former champion Austin Trout and then knocking out undefeated mandatory challenger Julian Williams. Jermall's twin brother, Jermell Charlo, is still at 154-pounds as the WBC junior middleweight world champion.

Charlo has his sights set on a middleweight title and the World Boxing Council has given him a very high ranking, as he debuts in the number two position in their rankings. The number three ranked Curtis Stevens and number four ranked David Lemieux will collide on Saturday night in New York.

The WBC's number one ranked contender is still Jorge Sebastian Heiland, who has been waiting forever to get his mandatory crack at the middleweight crown. Heiland has been in line for that title shot for at least two years.

It will be interesting to see if the WBC will order an eliminator that involves Charlo to get a mandatory shot.

The sanctioning body does note that they are waiting for Charlo's paperwork to join their Clean Boxing Program, which is the WBC drug testing protocol for all world champions and fighters ranked in the top 15.

Charlo also secure a number three position with the IBF in their middleweight rankings.

The current WBC middleweight champion is Gennady "GGG" Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs), who also holds the WBA, IBO, IBF world titles. Golovkin will defend his titles against mandatory challenger Daniel Jacobs (32-1, 29 KOs) next Saturday night in New York's Madison Square Garden.