By Stanley White: WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo (30-0, 15 KOs) greatly admires the talent, aggressive worth ethic and the punching power of IBF World welterweight champion Errol ‘The Truth’ Spence Jr. (23-0, 20 KOs).
Charlo, 27, says Spence hits harder than he’s ever been hit in his 11-year pro career fighting in the154 lb. weight class. Spence fights at 147, but he has same strainer as Jermell and he spends a lot of time sparring with him. Jermell feels that he’s improved a lot since he started sparring with the hard-hitting Spence.
“Spence, that man hits hard,” Jermell Charlo said to the boxing media. “He hits me harder than I’ve ever been hit in my life. The man trains aggressively. I can’t look at him slack or I’ll get wiped out,” Jermell said.
Spence is looking to get a unification fight with WBA/WBC welterweight champion Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman in 2019 after he uses 2018 to come back from an elbow injury. Spence wants to prove he’s the best fighter in the welterweight division. Spence defeated Lamont Peterson by a 7th round stoppage last January in his first defense of his IBF welterweight title. Spence will now be fighting on June 16th against an opponent still to be determined on Showtime Boxing in Dallas, Texas.
Jermell wasn’t puncher until recently. He’d been a finesse fighter through most of his career until June 2015, when he scored a 6th round knockout win over Joachim Alcine. Since that fight, Jermell has knocked out his last 3 opponents. His last knockout against Erickson Lubin in round 1 last October, it was a thing of beauty with Jermell landing a crushing right hand to the head that put him down. The referee didn’t even need to bother counting. Lubin was badly hurt and the fight needed to be stopped. Lubin wanted to get up, but he was unable to. Going into that fight, it was seen as a 50-50 match-up between two unbeaten fighters, but Jermell unloaded with a right hand that left Lubin on the canvas unable to carry on. In Jermell’s 2 knockout wins before that, he stopped Charles Hatley in the 6th and John Jackson in the 8th round.
”I almost hit as hard as my brother, and I’m at 154,” Jermell said about his brother Jermall Charlo, who is bigger and considered the stronger of the two Charlo brothers.
It’s hard to say if Jermell hits as hard as Jermall. When you get up to the level where they’re both at, it doesn’t matter if one guy hits a harder than the other. Both guys are going to be dangerous. Whether Jermell and Jermall succeed to become huge stars will depend on their boxing ability as well as their chins. They’re going to have to be able to take the big shots from guys like Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin, Saul Canelo Alvarez, Daniel Jacobs, Demetrius Andrade and Sergiy Derevyanchenko. Likewise, the Charlos will need to be able to box to the level of these talents. Golovkin, Canelo, and Jacobs are very good boxers. WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders is an excellent boxer as well. When Jermell moves up to 160, he’s going to need to have his entire game on point to defeat these fighters.
Jermell will be defending his WBC 154 lb. title on June 9 at the Staples Center, in Los Angeles, California. The opponent is still yet to be determined by Charlo. This will be Charlo’s third defense of his WBC junior middleweight belt he won in May 2016.