By Miguel Rivera

Former IBF junior middleweight champion Jermall Charlo is inching closer to a world title shot at WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs), who also holds the WBA, IBF, IBO titles.

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

Charlo (25-0, 19 KOs) last fought in the fall, when he knocked out undefeated mandatory challenger Julian Williams.

BoxingScene.com reported two weeks ago that Charlo was given a very high ranking when he made his debut in the WBC's middleweight ratings. The sanctioning body placed him in the number two position within their top ten.

The WBC's number one ranked contender is Jorge Sebastian Heiland (28-4-2, 15 KOs) of Argentina.

According to ESPN Deportes, the World Boxing Council, through its president Mauricio Sulaimán, made an announcement in Argentina that Heiland and Charlo would collide in a final eliminator - with the winner getting a shot at Golovkin.

Reports from Argentina point out that this was Sulaiman's response to the numerous questions about the future of Heiland, who has long been the highest ranked fighter at middleweight, but for whatever reason he was never given the opportunity to get a title shot.

The winner of that WBC eliminator could have a long wait before securing a crack at Golovkin, who last Saturday night won a twelve round unanimous decision in a mandatory defense against Daniel Jacobs at New York's Madison Square Garden.

Golovkin is now looking a June return in Kazakhstan, in a unification with WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders. The two sides are currently in serious negotiations for a unification on June 10.

If Golovkin defeats Saunders, the goal is to fight in September against Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. Canelo would still have to win his own upcoming fight, which takes place on May 6th against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.