According to World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman, his organization has officially ordered a middleweight showdown between Jermall Charlo (26-0, 20 KOs) and Hugo Centeno (26-1, 14 KOs) - and the fight has been sanctioned for the interim WBC championship.

The fight will be taking place because the full WBC middleweight title is tied up - as champion Gennady Golovkin is currently negotiating a potential May rematch with Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.

Canelo and Golovkin fought to a controversial twelve round draw back in September of last year, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Charlo is the mandatory challenger to the middleweight crown.

If the winner of Golovkin-Canelo rematch does not face the Charlo-Centeno winner next, then the holder of the interim-belt will be elevated to the status of full champion.

Canelo still has an ongoing dispute with the WBC and refused to fight for their title in the first Golovkin meeting. If Canelo wins the rematch, and the WBC title is not at stake for him, then the championship would become vacant - and the Charlo-Centeno winner would become the full champion by default.

The possibility of Charlo-Centeno was mentioned a few months ago by BoxingScene.com, and the contest was initially targeted for January. Now that January is here, there is no word on the exact status on when and where that fight will happen.

Both Charlo and Centeno are managed by Al Haymon, and both of them fight under the Premier Boxing Champions banner - which makes that fight an easy one to get done.

The last time Charlo was in action, he battered Jorge Sebastian Heiland back in July at the Barclays Center. It was Charlo's middleweight debut after vacating the IBF belt at 154-pounds to move up in weight.

Centeno has won two in a row, by knockout, since suffering a TKO loss to Maciej Sulecki in June 2016. Centeno knocked out undefeated Immanuwel Aleem in August.  

"Gennady Golovkin has been mandated to fight a rematch with Canelo Alvarez, and negotiations are taking place. In order to allow this rematch, the WBC ordered mandatory challenger Jermall Charlo to fight Hugo Centeno for the WBC middleweight interim championship," Sulaiman said.