Paulie Malignaggi feels that Jermell must be disciplined and not overextend with his shots when attacking Canelo Alvarez in their fight on September 30th.
With Canelo’s counter-punching style and his excellent power, he’ll make Jermell (35-1-1, 19 KOs) if he’s wild & sloppy with his shots. Paying for mistakes against a fighter that is two divisions above could be a problem for Jermell.
The 6’0″ Charlo has a big height & reach over the 5’8″ Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs), so he must use his size and stay on the outside to keep from getting countered to pieces.
With the Canelo-Charlo fight taking place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, it would be wise for Jermell to stay busy and ensure that he outworks Canelo by a wide margin because he could lose a decision if it’s close.
Jermell has big opportunity
“The Charlo brothers are terrific fighters, even star potential. I think they have a personality. I always felt they had a personality if taken advantage of, could make them into stars,” said Paulie Malignaggi to Fight Hub TV.
“I know they’ve been paid well, but I don’t think it’s ever been taken advantage of by putting them on that kind of platform that they could have been,” Malignaggi continued about the Charlo twins.
“Jermall has himself to blame. He hasn’t fought in two years, but Jermell has done a lot of work towards this, and I think this is the culmination of a lot of work.
“It’s a very, very big opportunity, but jumping up two weight classes is very difficult all at once. Also, Jermell has a habit a little bit of kind of getting wild with his combinations,” said Paulie.
Charlo must be disciplined
“He’ll close the gap very smoothly, but then he’ll kind of overextend his combinations and get a little wild,” Malignaaggi said about Jermell.
It’s not realistic to assume that Jermell to fight in a careful, calculated way because he never has before.
“We saw it in the Castano fight, and he was getting himself caught. Tony Harrison was able to take advantage of it in spots with little potshots in between,” said Malignaggi.
“Really, that’s kind of dangerous if you fall into that habit against Canelo Alvarez. He’s [Canelo] not the most adept fighter, but he’s very good at holding positioning and holding his ground and making you pay where he’s at if you overcommit.
“That’s where Jermell has to fight a disciplined fight, but I think Canelo has the advantage both for that reason, and I haven’t seen Jermell fight in this kind of disciplined manner yet at this level.
“He’s still a world class fighter, and despite that, he’s fighting two weight classes up. If you pay, you’re going to be paying heavily with a guy two weight classes up.
“It goes both ways. I remember when Shane Mosley did it against Oscar De La Hoya when he moved from 135 [lightweight] to 147 [welterweight]. Granted, he ended up getting caught on Balco and steroids, but whatever.
“The fact that weight classes don’t matter anymore, we’re going to leave that out there. Nobody wants to hear the actual truth. We’re going to have a pretend conversation. We’re going to say who will win, what will win.
“So, continuing with this pretend conversation, you see some guys ending up regretting it, and some guys succeed. There’s always a risk with it. There’s definitively a risk with it.
“I think when you’re being compensated the way that Jermeell is going to be compensated and also the risk-reward factor. There’s so much reward there if you can top a guy like Canelo. I guess you have no choice but to take it, really,” said Malignaggi.
