Not everyone is a fan of the Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez-Jermell Charlo bombshell announcement.

Tim Tszyu is one of seven combined mandatory challengers between the two undisputed champions and who is directly impacted the most by their confirmed fight September 30 in Las Vegas. The second-generation boxer expected to challenge for Charlo’s fully unified junior middleweight crown by that very deadline and wasn’t pleased with the update on his outstanding mandatory title shot.

“Canelo ducks [David] Benavidez Charlo ducks Tszyu,” the unbeaten Australian said Friday immediately after Alvarez revealed the news.

The other junior middleweight mandatories forced to wait out Alvarez-Charlo are Bakhram Murtazaliev (21-0, 15KOs) for the IBF; Brian Mendoza (22-2, 16KOs), who holds the interim WBC title; and Uzbekistan’s Israil Madrimov (9-0-1, 6KOs) for the WBA.

Benavidez (27-0, 23KOs) is the interim WBC super middleweight titlist who has for years screamed for his shot at Alvarez and the WBC title title he’s held twice before. David Morrell (9-0, 8KOs) is the WBA ‘Regular’ super middleweight titlist, while William Scull (20-0, 9KOs) is the IBF’s number-one contender.

Sydney’s Tszyu (23-0, 17KOs) is next in line for an already overdue title shot versus Houston’s Charlo (35-1-1, 19KOs), who holds all four titles in the division and with mandatories attached to each belt. The WBO previously ruled that Charlo was due to next challenge Tszyu “no later than September 30, 2023” prior to sanctioning Tszyu’s interim title defense versus Carlos Ocampo, whom he crushed inside of one round June 17 in Broadbeach, Australia.

WBO representatives did not respond to an inquiry from krikya360.com seeking comment on the status of Charlo’s title reign in the wake of Friday’s announcement.

Tszyu was formally named mandatory challenger in August 2021. He agreed to stand down for a second fight between Charlo and Argentina’s Brian Castano, with the written guarantee that he would get the winner of their May 2022 rematch for all four belts. Charlo won via tenth-round knockout to defend his lineal, WBC, WBA and IBF titles and claim Castano’s WBO belt, but inherited Tszyu as a mandatory challenger in the process.

The WBO ordered Charlo-Tszyu last May 31, which messed up plans for Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) to have Charlo face Murtazaliev last September. It was agreed that Charlo-Tszyu would go first, to take place January 28 in Las Vegas.

The date was canceled when Charlo suffered a broken hand injury in late December.

Tszyu was permitted by the WBO to fight for its interim title, which he claimed in a ninth-round stoppage of former WBC titlist Tony Harrison on March 12 in Sydney. The belief at the time was that Tszyu would challenge for Charlo’s crown by July but that deadline was pushed back when it was learned that Charlo wouldn’t be cleared in time.

A second interim title fight was granted, which saw Tszyu annihilate Mexico’s Ocampo in just 67 seconds. Ocampo’s only other stoppage defeat came in his June 2018 IBF welterweight title challenge versus Errol Spence, Charlo’s training stablemate.

“I did it quicker than your boy, man,” Tszyu said during his post-fight interview when addressing Charlo from afar. “So, come on, get your hand healing. Let’s dance. Let’s dance in October. No disrespect – let’s just dance. Me and you, best dancing partners we’ll be.”

Charlo clearly had other plans in mind. He agreed to face Alvarez (59-2-2, 39KOs) in place of his twin brother Jermall, who was the frontrunner to land the fight but determined he wouldn’t be ready for a fight of that magnitude after more than two years out of the ring due to deep personal issues.

Efforts by Boxing Scene to contact Tszyu and his immediate team went unreturned as this goes to publication. However, it is expected that Team Tszyu will force the WBO to take action in some capacity.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for krikya360.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox