By Jeff Aranow: In a stacked card on October 14, unbeaten WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo will be defending his title against unbeaten mandatory contender Erickson Lubin at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. There isn’t a network yet for the fight card, but Showtime Championship Boxing is where the fight card could wind up being televised.
The 21-year-old Lubin (18-0, 13 KOs) could give the new and improved Charlo (29-0, 14 KOs) a tough test. Charlo has looked a lot better as of late in knocking out his last three opponents in fights against Charles Hatley, John Jackson and Joachim Alcine. However, Lubin is a big step up from those guys, and this might be a little more than Charlo can handle right now.
Charlo looked vulnerable in the past in his fights against Vanes Martirosyan and Gabriel Rosado. The scoring in both of those fights was very generous for Charlo, who appeared to lose both of those fights in the eyes of some in the boxing world. Charlo, 27, has looked much improved lately in the power department. If he can bring that same power with him to the Lubin fight, he should be able to get past him in what would be the hardest fight of his career.
Charlo looked splendid in stopping Charles Hatley in the 6th round on April 22. Charlo knocked out the hard hitting John Jackson in the 8th round in his fight before that in May of last year. Jackson had his moments in that fight, but Charlo ultimately prevailed with his big power shots.
Lubin has looked great as of late in beating Jorge Cota, Juan Ubaldo Cabrera and Ivan Montero. Lubin seems to be getting better with each fight. He’s knocked out his last 2 opponents he’s faced. There is a big difference in Lubin fighting those guys compared to what he’s going to be dealing with on October 14 when he gets inside the ring with Charlo. It’s going to be a much harder fight for him. We’ll see whether Lubin is as good as he’s been looking when he faces Charlo.
If Lubin loses the fight badly, he’ll need to hit the reset button on his career and go in another direction. Depending on how badly Lubin gets beaten, he might want to go after the WBO 154lb. belt. Miguel Cotto is fighting for the vacant WBA junior middleweight title this Saturday night against Yoshihiro Kamegai on HBO Championship Boxing at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Cotto will likely win that fight to become the WBO champion. Cotto will retire at the end of the year, and that means the WBO title will fall vacant. This is something Lubin should think about if things don’t go his way against Charlo.
The undercard is equally as good with WBA Super World 154 lb. champion Erislandy Lara (24-2-2, 14 KOs) defending his belt in a voluntary defense against #8 WBA Terrell Gausha (20-0, 9 KOs). This opponent is light years better than the guys that the 34-year-old Lara has been defending his WBA title against lately in the last 3 years of his career. Lara has arguably been milking his WBA title since 2014 with easy title defenses against Yuri Foreman, Ishe Smith, Delvin Rodriguez, Jan Zaveck and Vanes Martirosyan.
Also on the October 14 card is IBF 154 lb. champion Jarrett Hurd (20-0, 14 KOs) defending against former world champion Austin “No Doubt” Trout (30-3, 17 KOs). this is a better fight than the Lara-Gausha match, which isn’t surprising given the way that Lara has been taking it easy ever since his loss to Saul Canelo Alvarez in 2014. Trout has looked good in 2 of his 3 defeats against Saul Canelo Alvarez and Jermall Charlo. If Trout can fight at that level, he’ll probably beat Hurd.