The effort to crown an undisputed junior middleweight champion has hit another roadblock.

BoxingScene.com has learned that Brian Castano has been forced to withdraw from a planned rematch with Jermell Charlo after suffering a slight biceps tear during training camp. The fight was due to take place March 19 at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles but is forced to endure another delay.

This one could affect the undisputed championship status for such a fight, which is facing a minimum delay of at least four weeks. Efforts to contact Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) seeking comment went unreturned as this goes to publish.

All four sanctioning bodies agreed to refrain from ordering mandatory title defenses to allow Charlo (34-1-1, 18KOs) and Castano (17-0-2, 12KOs) to enter a rematch with the lineal/WBA/WBC/IBF/WBO titles at stake following their controversial split decision draw last July 17 at AT&T Center in San Antonio. Hopes of rescheduling the fight late last year were instead pushed back to late in the first quarter of 2022, with March 19 set aside for the anticipated sequel.

The rematch was formally—though cryptically—announced on February 3, with a 71-word press release confirming the fight date and venue. A televised platform was not revealed, nor has event handlers moved forward with a press conference—a customary practice for such events since the pandemic.

Castano’s injury comes at the worst possible time. The WBO—whose title he claimed in a twelve-round win over Patrick Teixeira last February 13—agreed to table its plans to order a mandatory title defense versus Australia’s Tim Tszyu. The agreement came with plans for Tszyu to face 2012 U.S. Olympian and veteran trialhorse Terrel Gausha on the March 19 undercard, with the idea that the winners would face each other.

The delay could prompt the WBO to instead order that fight, which could create a domino effect. Charlo has a mandatory due with the IBF (Bakhram Murtazaliev (19-0, 14KOs), who has appeared on the Texan’s last two undercards), while Erickson Lubin (24-1, 17KOs) and Sebastian Fundora (18-0-1, 12KOs) are due to collide in April, in a fight that was to guarantee the winner a shot at the WBC title.

Israil Madrimov (8-0, 6KOs) is the current WBA mandatory challenger. 

Charlo has made two successful defenses of the WBC title he regained in an eleventh-round knockout of Tony Harrison in their December 2019 rematch. Both defenses have been unification fights. Charlo scored an eighth-round knockout of Jeison Rosario (21-1-1, 15KOs at the time) in September 2020 to retain his WBC title while claiming the IBF/WBA titles and becoming the recognized lineal champion. 

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox