By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF junior middleweight champion Jermall Charlo says he’s ready to face Daniel Jacobs, and he wants to face him at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Charlo (26-0, 20 KOs) says he heard Jacobs (32-2, 29 KOs) was trash talking him. He says he should face him. Charlo says Jacobs recently fought Luis Arias, but he didn’t fight him.
Charlo wants to face the 31-year-old Jacobs. Unfortunately, a fight against Jacobs doesn’t look like it’s in the cards for Charlo. Jacobs has expressed no interest in wanting to face Charlo, and his British promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport is NOT interested in that fight.
“We got to keep winning. Sooner or later, they’re going to say to GGG, ‘you next to fight him or just get you’re [expletive] out of boxing. Move you’re a– to 168,’” Jermall Charlo said to Fighthype. “I heard [Daniel] Jacobs was talking that s–t. I’m in the Barclay. The Barclay loves me. Let’s make it happen. I’m not scared of no one in boxing. He fought [Luis] Arias. He didn’t fight me. Let’s get it. No question. No talk,” Charlo said.
Hearn and Jacobs are only focused on trying to get the winner of the Golovkin vs. Canelo fight. They think they’re going to get that fight, but I think it’s a pipe dream on their part. Canelo’s promoters are interested in putting him in with either David Lemieux or Gary O’Sullivan after the GGG fight. Jacobs is not being mentioned as a possibility option for Canelo.
Charlo will be fighting Hugo Centeno Jr. (26-1, 14 KOs) for the interim WBC middleweight title on April. That’s a fight that will put Charlo closer to either getting the World Boxing Council middleweight title given to him outside of the ring or possibly being given a title shot against WBC 160 lb. champion Gennady Golovkin. Charlo is in a bad position right now to get a fight with GGG, because he’s facing Saul Canelo Alvarez in a rematch on May 5th.
If Golovkin wins that fight, then he’ll face WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders in a unification fight to unify the division. Golovkin is probably going to give up all of middleweight belts once he unifies the division, because he wants to move up to 168 and face the winner of the World Boxing Super Series tournament.
Charlo is in an advantageous position to have the WBC give him the title outside of the ring once GGG is done with unifying the division. If Golovkin loses to Canelo in a rematch, then the WBC belt will likely fall vacant. Canelo has no interest in keeping the title. Charlo will end up with the WBC title being given to him in that situation as well. More likely than not, Charlo is going to be the WBC middleweight champion soon, if he beats Centeno Jr. on April 21.
As for Jacobs, he’ll be fighting next against Maciej Sulecki (26-0, 10 KOs) on April 28 on HBO at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. No titles are on the line. This is just a fight to keep Jacobs busy while he waits to see if he can get the winner of the Canelo-GGG fight.
