The future appears to be wide open for Jeison Rosario.
Former junior middleweight titleholder Julian Williams is forgoing his contractual right to an immediate rematch against Rosario, the Dominican contender who scored a shocking stoppage of Williams on Jan. 18 in the latter’s inaugural title defense in his hometown of Philadelphia, multiple outlets have reported.
The reason? Williams (27-2-1, 16 KOs) needs to recover from surgery on the cut he suffered over his left eye in the Rosario fight. Provided Rosario is still a titleholder, Williams has every intention of pursuing a rematch later in the year, according to BoxingScene.com. The feeling apparently is mutual.
“When Williams wants the rematch, Rosario will give it to him, 100%,” Sampson Lewkowicz, Rosario’s promoter, told Boxing Junkie. “For now, Williams has a medical problem.”
That leaves Rosario (20-1-1, 14 KOs), who turns 25 in April, with a few options in a division teeming with intriguing possibilities. He could face his mandatory in Russian Bakhram Murtazaliev (17-0, 13 KOs). Or, more compellingly, he could head straight into a unification against fellow titleholder Jermell Charlo (33-1, 17 KOs), who revenged his disputed loss to Tony Harrison (28-3, 21 KOs) last December. Both Charlo and Rosario are aligned with Premier Boxing Champions, so that would be a relatively easy matchup to make.
Rosario’s upset of Williams was just another eye-opening outcome in the ultra competitive 154-pound division. Last year, Williams upset multiple-belt titleholder Jarrett Hurd (24-1, 16 KOs) in impressive fashion. All in all, the division has produced some of the most interesting story lines of any weight class.
As for Williams, he is staring down at yet another attempt at a comeback. He was knocked out by current middleweight titleholder Jermall Charlo (Jermell’s twin brother) in 2016 before making a statement against Hurd last year. Williams’ trainer Stephen Edwards has set the bar high for his charge the second time around. Shortly after the upset loss to Rosario, Edwards was adamant about getting revenge.
“[Williams] cannot go out on his career losing to that kid, I’m sorry,” Edwards said on the TalkBox Boxing Podcast. “[The loss to] Jermall Charlo, I can accept that a little bit. You know, that guy may go to the Hall of Fame, and we can say we fought him when Julian was a little young at the time and that he caught Julian with a great shot.
“This fight (against Rosario), I can’t stomach that. I’m serious. I just can’t.”
Follow Sean Nam on Twitter @seanpasbon