Canelo Alvarez has taken a lot of heat from fans over his planning to defend his undisputed super middleweight championship next against 160-pounder Jermell Charlo on September 16th.
Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) has NEVER fought at 168 to earn a title shot, he’s coming off a two-year layoff, and his resume at 160 is weak, filled with lesser opposition.
With true super middleweights like David Benavidez and David Morrell Jr available, boxing fans don’t see the reason for Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) to be giving Charlo a free title shot.
At the very least, Jermall should have fought a top 10 contender at 168 to put himself in the rankings in the weight class before being given a title shot.
Jermall Charlo’s resume at 160
- Juan Macias Montiel
- Sergiy Derevyanchenko
- Dennis Hogan
- Brandon Adams
- Matt Korobov
- Hugo Centeno Jr
- Jorge Sebastian Heiland
Canelo signing a three-fight deal with PBC is why he’s facing Jermall Charlo rather than another fighter.
Still, it would have looked a lot better to the fans if Canelo had fought Benavidez or Morrell because those are super middleweight, and they’re considered two of the best.
“100. You and I might look at it like that, and the average fan might look at it like that. I think the people that write the checks and do the business, they’re looking at it more as a three-fight thing, not a one-fight thing,” said Dan Rafael to Boxing Social about Jermall Charlo not deserving to fight undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on September 16th.
“So it’s like, ‘Let’s start off with this, and we’ll figure out what the next best one is, and then the next best one is.’ So they also have an obligation to Charlo also, who they work with, but yeah, anybody with half a brain would look at a matchup between Canelo and Charlo at this moment and say that’s not the best fight you can make.
“No knock on Charlo. He’s had his problems, and he’s had injuries. The WBC says part of it was mental health related. He’s had some outside-of-the-ring issues. Fine. I certainly don’t wish anything bad on Jermall Charlo, but it’s very obvious he doesn’t deserve an opportunity to fight for the undisputed super middleweight title.
“He has not fought for two years as of last week. He has not really had a stellar record against top opponents at middleweight. Now, he was excellent when he was junior middleweight champion. He fought good guys and distinguished himself.
“As a middleweight, he’s been extremely inactive and has a pretty weak resume. His biggest win at middleweight was a competitive but legit win against Sergey Derevyanchenko. That’s a good win, but it’s not like it’s some huge pound-for-pound kind of victory.
“But when he came back after the Derevyanchenko fight, he had a fight against Juan Macias Montiel. He won a very lopsided basically almost a shutout, but he was made to look kind of bad in that fight. It was kind of shocking to most people that he didn’t get the stoppage.
“So yeah, he’s a challenger, but it’s sort of like, it’s Canelo; he’s coming back to fight. His last fight was in Mexico. This fight is in the United States.
“So anytime he has that level of fight, it’s fine but no, it’s not the most exciting fight in the world, and it’s not like Charlo is some mega pay-per-view draw or this giant ticket seller with a massive fan base.
“He isn’t, but that’s the way it is, and if your Canelo Alvarez and they’re offering you big money and two other fights against the other PBC guys are maybe at least in the super middleweight division who are held in higher esteem, like a David Benavidez, like a David Morrell, and like a Demetrius Andrade; you got to do what you got to do,” said Rafael.
