Canelo Alvarez (60-2-2,39 KOs) retained his super middleweight undisputed crown with a one-sided twelve round unanimous decision over a surprisingly timid Jermell Charlo (35-2-1, 19 KOs) on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
The fight was billed as ‘undisputed vs. undisputed,’ but it looked like the Face of Boxing, Canelo, defending against an average run-of-the-mill contender in fifteen-year pro Jermell a dull fight.
Canelo fought well early on, showing the kind of form that he had in 2021 when he captured the undisputed 168-lb championship with a fantastic run. Alvarez knocked Jermell down in round seven with a shot that seemed to hurt him but made him afraid to get hit with a follow-up.
After the seventh, Canelo’s gas tank was on low and wasn’t fighting with the same energy as he had in the first half of the fight. It didn’t matter, though, because Jermell had no desire to mix it up.
In the first two minutes of round eight, the 33-year-old Jermell fought well, landing some nice shots. However, Canelo came on strong in the last minute to nail Charlo with some solid punches.
One of them was a big uppercut that almost took Jermell’s head off, but he took the shot well without doing down. That punch was a lot better than the shot that dropped Charlo with in the seventh, but it looked like he was more willing to take it than he had a round earlier.
In hindsight, it would have been nice if Jermell had been willing to go out on his shield by fighting tooth & nail like a real lion would, but it didn’t seem like he was willing to go down that hard road and risk taking the ultimate sacrifice.
Jermell looked like a fighter who was thinking more about going home in one piece, collecting his eight-figure check, and buying a new mansion with it so he could enjoy his money from this fight against Canelo.
One thing that Jermell did well in the fight was to take some massive shots from Canelo without getting knocked out. Of course, if Jermell hadn’t been doing so much clinching in each round, he likely would have been knocked out by Canelo.
Jermell will now likely return to the 154-lb division and pick up another paycheck against Terence Crawford if he’s free. Crawford would like to move up to 168 to challenge Canelo for his undisputed, but it remains to be seen whether he’ll give him the opportunity.
If Canelo doesn’t fight Crawford, he’ll be under intense pressure to face the David Benavidez vs. Demetrius Andrade winner of their November 25th fight.
