Former IBF junior middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (25-0, 19 KOs) says he’s moving up to the 160 pound division, and he’s going to whip both Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Daniel Jacobs after he moves up to that weight class. Charlo, 6’0”, would be a very difficult fight for Golovkin and Jacobs. With the power, size and speed Charlo possesses, he’d be a definite threat to both of them. We don’t know how good Charlo’s chin is because he hasn’t been hit by a big puncher yet.
Charlo has faced some power punchers in the past in Cornelius Bundrage and Julian “J-Rock” Williams, but he was able to knock them out quickly to avoid getting hit by them all that much.
“I’m going up to 160 to kick some [expletive],” said Jermall Charlo to Fighthub.com. “It was a great fight,” said Charlo in talking about the Golovkin vs. Jacobs fight. “I think Danny Jacobs did an outstanding job. GGG, he neutralized Danny. He made it a closer fight than it was. I had Danny winning slightly by one round. It is what it is. I’ll whip both of their [expletive],” said Charlo about him potentially beating Golovkin and Jacobs at middleweight.
“F*** both of them, said Jermall when asked if he wants to fight the winner of the May 6th fight between Saul Canelo Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Charlo might end up fighting in an empty division if Golovkin and Jacobs both move up soon. The only one that would be there is Saul Canelo Alvarez, and it’s doubtful that he would ever fight someone dangerous like Charlo. He didn’t fight him when the two of them were fighting in the 154lb division, so it’s doubtful he’ll fight him at 160.
One negative that Charlo has working against him in a head to head match-up with Golovkin or Jacobs is his lack of high level experience. Charlo struggled to beat Austin Trout in beating him by a narrow 12 round unanimous decision on May 21 last year. Charlo won by the close scores of 116-112, 115-113 and 116-112. Trout finished stronger in that fight. Charlo ran out of gas after 7 rounds. If that were Jacobs or Golovkin that Charlo was facing instead of Trout, he likely would have been knocked out.
Some boxing fans believe that Charlo’s off performance was the result of his struggles to make the 154lb limit. We’ll find out in time if that excuse is accurate one or not once Charlo starts fighting at 160. It’s going to be intriguing to see if Charlo is strong at middleweight or if he’ll be weight drained in this division too. Charlo and Jacobs are both guys that might be better off fighting at 168 rather than at 160. Golovkin is more suited to 160, because he’s a smaller guy.
Charlo, 26, is moving up in weight to the middleweight division because it’s become too hard for him to make weight at 154. But he also wants to move up to the 160lb division to seek bigger and better fights. The World Boxing Council has responded quickly by ranking Jermall at No.2 at middleweight, which puts Golovkin in his sights. Charlo is perhaps one fight away from becoming Golovkin’s mandatory challenger for his WBC belt.
Whether Golovkin will stick around to defend his WBC title against Charlo in 2018 is the big question. Charlo may not ever get a chance to fight Golovkin if the Kazakhstan fighter moves up to the 168lb division at the end of this year. That’s supposed to be the plan for Golovkin if he gets a fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez in September.
If Golovkin doesn’t get that fight, then he could be staying at 160. His trainer Abel Sanchez is saying that Golovkin will be moving up to 168 next year whether he gets the Canelo fight or not. They plan on moving up in weight and campaigning in that division.
Chavez Jr. says Saul Canelo Alvarez is a protected fighter
Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. says that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is a fighter that has been protected from fighting the best in his weight classes. Chavez Jr. points out that Canelo (48-1-1, 34 KOs) never fought the best guys when he was the WBC champion unlike hm. Canelo vacated his WBC middleweight title after he was ordered to fight his mandstory challenger Gennady Golovkin. As the WBO junior middleweight champion, Canelo still hasn’t fought Demetrius Andrade. Canelo never fought either of the Charlo brothers or Julian Williams.
Those would have been hard fights for Canelo that he might have lost. As the WBC middleweight champion, Canelo fought a welterweight in Amir Khan from 2 divisions below him instead of fighting Golovkin.
“Canelo takes advantage of my name,” said Chavez Jr. to esnewsreporting.com. “Canelo is the protected guy. Canelo didn’t fight the best in the WBC, you know. I fight the best fighters during my time [as WBC middleweight champion]. I never say not to [Sergio] Martinez,” said Chavez Jr.
Chavez Jr. brings up a good point about Canelo not fighting the top guys when he was a champion. It’s obviously not Caneo who does the match-making for him. It’s his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions that are guiding his career to make sure that he makes the right moves, and that means they’re making sure that he doesn’t fight the guys that could potentially beat him. That could be the reason why Canelo still hasn’t fought Golovkin.
It appears that Canelo is being moved like a chess piece for business fights, and to make sure that he doesn’t lose. I don’t know if we’re going to see Canelo matched against the more dangerous fighters like Daniel Jacobs, Jermell Charlo, Demetrius Andrade or Jermall Charlo. Unlike the 35-year-old Gennady Golovkin, Canelo can’t wait them out until their old before he fights them. Canelo can do that with Golovkin because he’s 9-years older than him.
“I think it’s a tough fight for Golovkin,” said Chavez Jr. in talking about whether Golovkin would beat Canelo. “Golovkin is hard hitting, but he’s beatable. I know I can beat every opponent at my weight when I’m in great shape,” said Chavez Jr.
It’s hard to predict how Canelo would do against Golovkin, because he’s not fought anyone as talented as him since his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. Canelo has problems against fighters that jab, and Golovkin has an excellent jab. If Golovkin wants to give Canelo problems like he did David Lemieux, he could jab him for 6 or 7 rounds before looking to finish him off in the second half of the fight.
Chavez Jr. has his chance to show the boxing world on May 6th that he can beat a good fighter when he’s in tip top shape when he faces Canelo at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Assuming that Chavez Jr. can make it to though the entire fight without quitting like he did against Andrzej Fonfara, he’s going to have plenty of chances to land his big body shots against Canelo. Liam Smith was able to hit Canelo with a lot of body shots in their fight last September.
Unfortunately for Smith, he didn’t have the chain to take the big punches that Canelo was hitting him with and he eventually was knocked out in the 9th round. Chavez Jr. might have a better chance of beating Canelo than Smith did, because he’s shown in the past that he can take a big punch. What we don’t know is whether Chavez Jr’s punch resistance is the same as it once was. Being inactive for the last years in fighting infrequently could have done something to Chavez Jr’s chin, because he did not handle Fonfara’s power shots really well.