On the heels of his dominant return to the ring, Jermall Charlo may not be far from earning a title shot.

Charlo entered the WBA’s super middleweight rankings at No. 2 after his dominant sixth-round stoppage of Thomas LaManna on Saturday at Mandalay Bay’s Micheolb Ultra Arena in Las Vegas. The win was Charlo’s first after an 18-month absence from the ring and his first fight at the 168-pound limit.

Charlo (34-0, 23 KOs) only trails Bektemir Melikuziev, who jumped to No. 1 after his unanimous decision win over Darius Fulgham on Friday. Charlo was previously unranked, while Melikuziev (16-1, 10 KOs) jumped from No. 3 to No. 1, surpassing undefeated contenders Christian Mbilli and Lester Martinez. Mbilli went from No. 1 to out of the WBA’s super middleweight rankings entirely, while Martinez dropped from No. 2 to No. 3.

Armando Resendiz is the interim WBA super middleweight champion after his upset split decision win over Caleb Plant on Saturday on the same card as Charlo’s stoppage victory over LaManna (39-6-1, 18 KOs).

Canelo Alvarez holds all four titles as the undisputed super middleweight champion.

Charlo, 35, looked the part of a former two-division world champion vs LaManna, dropping him in the third, fourth and fifth rounds before referee Mark Nelson stopped the fight at the beginning of the sixth on the advice of the ringside doctor. Charlo’s jab was among the many weapons he found success with, as he busted up LaManna’s face with it in the opening round. Of Charlo’s 67 punches landed, 44 were jabs.

LaManna was ranked No. 11 by the WBA and riding a nine-fight win streak heading into Saturday.

Plans for Charlo to face Plant (23-3, 14 KOs) for the interim WBA super middleweight title were seemingly foiled by Resendiz’s upset win over the former IBF super middleweight champion. While that fight could still happen, it doesn’t hold the same weight with Plant coming off a loss, as boxing witnessed another case of attempting to marinate a big fight gone wrong.

If PBC were to pit Charlo and Resendiz (16-2, 11 KOs) against each other later in 2025, that could pave the way for the former to land a shot at Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KOs) in 2026 with a win, though, it’ll also depend on how his fight vs two-division undisputed champion Terence Crawford plays out on Sept. 13. Charlo and Canelo nearly fought in 2023, but personal issues led to Jermell Charlo stepping in and losing a one-sided decision to Canelo.

Now, two years later, Charlo could be one win away from earning a long-coveted shot at Canelo.