Jermell Charlo says he wants to bulk up to around 180 or 181 lbs and then cut down to 168 lbs to challenge Canelo Alvarez for his undisputed super middleweight championship on September 30th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
This is going to be a really tough fight for the 33-year-old Canelo because he’s facing an opponent that can follow the blueprint that Dmitry Bivol created last year to dominate him with jabs, combination punching, and an in & out-attacking style.
Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) will likely be at a similar weight for the fight once he rehydrates overnight after the weigh-in, so he’s not going to have a weight advantage over Jermell.
If Canelo is going to win, he’s going to need to use his boxing skills and go for a kill shot like he used to score stoppages over Caleb Plant & Billy Joe Saunders in 2021.
Unfortunatly for Canelo, he lacks the cardio to match Jermell with his punch output, as he can’t throw punches without gassing out, turning red in the face, and needing to rest against the ropes for rounds at a time.
We saw that happen to Canelo in his last three fights against John Ryder, Gennadiy Golovkin, and Bivol. It’s one thing for Canelo to gas out against Bivol & GGG, but for him to have done it against thee British fighter Ryder, wow!
Canelo needs some serious help with his conditioning before September 300th because thee pace that Jermell is going to set will wear him down quickly.
“I got to walk around probably like 175, 180, or something like that to drop back down to 168 so I can have my muscle and my speed because once you lose the weight, you’re going to feel faster,” said Jermell Charlo to BigboyTV on his fight against Canelo Alvarez on September 30th.
Jermell likely is close to 180 lbs already with his walking-around weight, so he’s not going to have to bulk up too much to archive that weight for the fight with Canelo.
“If I’m moving up to 168, I got to go to 180, 181, and then just drop back down. I don’t want to be slow,” said Jermell.
Even if Jermell is a little slower, his power will be increased, and his jab will be like a telephone pole. He will do some damage to Canelo with that weapon alone, using him as a punching bag like he did hiss last opponent, Brian Castano.
“If you try to change what got you here and try to change up something, you’re definitely going to look different,” Jermell continued. “You want to perform and use those same things that got you there.
“My brother said that he’s not in the right mental state, so he’s not going to take the fight. So that made me step up,” said Charlo about his brother Jermall opting not to accept the fight with Canelo due to his personal problems. “He was battling with divorce, life, fighting with kids.
“Everybody is trying to be Mayweather, thinking they’re going to become the $100 million guy, but the era has changed. Boxing is different,” said Jermell about how fighters protect their records, facing exclusively beatable opposition to building up an unbeaten record like Floyd Mayweather Jr. did with his careful match-making during his career.
