Mahmoud Charr reinstated as WBA “world” champion, must fight Jarrell Miller

Before I start, a bit of background.

I am actually on a short Labor Day Weekend vacation with my family in the Tetons. I’ll be fly fishing with my father tomorrow morning, with my eldest sister and her kids flying in later in the day. I’d finished up a bit of work and was just about set to wind down, read a bit, and head to bed. Then I saw a story I needed to pass along.

Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong.

One of my most important roles at Bad Left Hook is chronicling the ongoing misadventures of Mahmoud Charr and the WBA. Back in 2019, Charr (34-4, 20 KO), then the “world” champion after overpowering Alexander Ustinov, got the call to fight interim champion Trevor Bryan. This kicked off a multi-year saga that saw Don King win two purse bids with seven-figure offers and twice decline to send Charr contracts, allowing King to swap in his own fighters against Bryan. The WBA ultimately stripped Charr nearly three years after first ordering the Bryan bout, and in return, Charr added the WBA to his lawsuit against King.

While that portion of Charr’s lawsuit was reportedly dismissed in March, it seems that wasn’t the end of it. In a delightfully begrudging blog post, the sanctioning body announced today that they’d reinstated Charr “[a]s part of a court settlement.” This comes less than a week after they’d finally eliminated the “world” title by having Oleksandr Usyk fight Daniel Dubois, and the WBA makes sure to point this out in the post.

It gets better, though. “After a thorough study by the WBA on the best way to execute this move,” Charr must now fight Jarrell Miller (26-0-1, 22 KO) by October 14th, then . This is despite Miller sitting at no. 5 in their rankings behind the ostensibly not-booked Martin Bakole and Lenier Pero.

It honestly feels punitive. “No, we wouldn’t give you the dignity of losing to a genuine contender. You will fight the 330-pound drug cheat and you will like it.”

I was worried that Gilberto Mendoza had gone soft, but the man’s still got it. He even did his classic bogus rankings trick, swapping Miller’s and Arslanbek Makhmudov’s spots from the previous month despite neither man fighting in the interim.

Now we just need Fres Oquendo to get involved.