Keith Thurman questions whether Jermell Charlo’s conditioning will hold up under the constant, relentless pressure from the bigger & stronger Canelo Alvarez on September 30th.
Although Jermell (35-1-1,19 KOs) isn’t known for having stamina issues, the fact that he’s moving up 14 lbs to take on a Mexican fighter whose bread & butter is his pressure style of fighting could wear down the challenger and eventually lead to him being knocked out.
Charlo was obviously picked for a reason by undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo (59-2-2,39 KOs) and his manager/trainer, Eddy Reynoso. They’ve watched him fight and noted that he’s someone who fades a little bit when facing a pressure fighter who doesn’t slow down.
Thurman says that Jermell needs to stay on the outside and learn from how Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Dimitry Bivol did in their victories over Canelo.
You could add Erislandy Lara to that list because had had success against Canelo by boxing him from the outside, but the judges didn’t give him the win in their controversial fight in July 2014 in Las Vegas.
“He [Jermell] is a good outside boxer. The only thing I question is the conditioning. Canelo’s pressure, and he’s going to keep [attacking]. He’s a Mexican fighter. That pressure,” said Keith Thurman to Fighthub TV about what could be Jermell Charlo’s undoing on September 30th.
Jermell will have to stay on the outside, jab, and throw combinations if he wants to beat Canelo. The judges probably won’t give Jermell the decision if he throws single punches all night like we saw with Lara and Gennadiy Golovkin in their fights with Canelo.
Those fighters failed to throw combos, and Canelo was able to impress the judges with his harder, cleaner-landing shots.
Golovkin took a lot of the power off his shots to increase his accuracy, and that and the fact he failed to put his punches together led to his failure to defeat Alvarez.
Thurman would like Jermell to follow the game plan that Dmitry Bivol had last year by staying on the outside and then landing three-punch combos. However, Jermell isn’t as big or as technically gifted as Bivol, so it’s going to be hard for him to follow his game plan.
“You’re fighting a puncher. He’s a puncher and has always been a punched,” said Thurman. “His power, you still have to be wary of it and make the game plan to avoid it and to avoid it for how long? For the whole fight, G. Avoid it for the whole fight,” said Thurman about what Jermell must do to beat Canelo.
