By Allan Fox: Errol Spence Jr. says he thinks interim WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (27-0, 21 KOs) has the talent, size, power and youth to defeat IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC champion Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) right now if the two of them face each other.
Spence (23-0, 20 KOs) feels that the 27-year-old Jermall is ready to beat GGG following his 2nd round knockout win over Hugo Centeno Jr. (26-2, 14 KOs) last Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The ‘W’ For the Charlo twin locked him in as the WBC mandatory for Golovkin, so now he’s just waiting for the World Boxing Council to order the fight. That’s not going to happen anytime soon unfortunately, as the WBC is going to wait for GGG to fight Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in a rematch on September 15.
“Jermall Charlo is strong,” Errol Spence Jr. said to Fighthype. “He had a lot of more bounce in his step. He looked strong. He looked sharp. I like how he looks at 160. Yeah, I think he beats Triple G. I feel like he’s faster, stronger, he’s younger, taller and he’s smarter. I just feel like he’s got all the talent to beat Triple G,” Spence said.
Charlo definitely has the size and youth on Golovkin, but I’m not sure whether he has the same kind of power. Golovkin is a huge puncher when he’s loading up on his shots. We don’t always see Golovkin put everything he has in his shots, because he likes to mix it up the power on his shots.
If Golovkin were to load up on all of his punches the way Charlo does, then the fans would see the difference in power between them. As far as Charlo being more intelligent than Golovkin, that’s debatable. Some boxing fans are now questioning GGG’s ring IQ following his last two performances against Canelo and Daniel Jacobs.
In both fights, Golovkin chose to box them rather than using his power to high pressure style of fighting to get the victory. What was strange is how Golovkin choose not to follow the blueprint created by Dmitry Pirog in how to beat Jacobs by using pressure and power punching. Golovkin would have an excellent chance of knocking Jacobs out if he had gone after him the way Pirog did.
Instead of using his power, Golovkin fought Jacobs’ game by boxing him from the outside, and he made the fight a lot harder than it should have been had he followed Pirog’s game plan. If you look at the Jacobs-Pirog fight, Pirog looked like he was worry-free, having fun dominating Jacobs.
The difference between how Pirog fought Jacobs and how Golovkin fought him was like night and day. Pirog had zero respect for Jacobs from start to finish. Pirog had the air of someone who just knew he was too good for Jacobs, and he was going to knock him out. In contrast, Golovkin fought like he feared Jacobs’ power, and he gave him way too much respect.
Golovkin did the same thing against Canelo. Instead of fighting with confidence in going after him at close to medium range, Golovkin stayed on the outside and boxed him for 12 rounds. It was a crazy thing to do, because Golovkin was facing a much more popular fighter in Canelo, who was fighting in his favorite city in Las Vegas in front of his own fans.
A smart fighter like Pirog would have known what he was up against and he would have gone after Canelo from start to finish, looking to knock him out. Since Golovkin will never have the same mindset of a smart fighter like Pirog, he needs to have a trainer that tells him how to fight. Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez needs to give him the right directions, because he’s going to lose to Canelo in the rematch if he fights him the same way he did in the first fight.
Golovkin needs to be more like Pirog and should forget about trying to beat Canelo by boxing him. That’s never going to work, especially with Canelo fighting in Las Vegas. He’s near unbeatable in Vegas, and Golovkin should have known that. Golovkin needs someone like Pirog as a second trainer. That guy is smart, and he would tell Golovkin what he needs to do. If Golovkin could add some of the head movement and defensive skills that Pirog had, he would see immediate improvements in his game. Even at 36, Golovkin could still learn and take his game to the next level with a guy like Pirog helping him.
”Yeah, I’d like to see that fight too,” Spence said about a match between Jermall Charlo and Daniel Jacobs. ”Daniel and Jermall, they go at it [verbally], but that’s understandable. They’re in the same weight class.”
Jacobs said he wants to fight Charlo after his fight this Saturday night against Maciek Sulecki in New York. Jacobs wants the Golovkin or Canelo fight next, but he says he’ll take on Charlo if he can’t get either of them. If Jacobs calls his own shots, then Charlo could be next for him. I tend to doubt it though. Jacobs’ promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing is being very careful with him by matching him against guys that he knows he can beat like Sulecki and Luis Arias.
”Probably Triple G, because Triple G can punch,” Spence said when asked who would be the harder opponent for Jermall to fight – Golovkin or Jacobs. ”Triple G can punch and he’s got a monster chin, so I’d probably say Triple G,” Spence said.
It goes without saying that Golovkin would be the tougher fight for Charlo than Jacobs. Charlo is a pressure fighter like Pirog, and he’s dumb enough to try and box Jacobs for 12 rounds. Sanchez made a major mistake in having Golovkin box Jacobs last year in their fight in March. Charlo would never use that approach to a fight with Jacobs. He’ll be looking to knock Jacobs out just like he did against Hugo Centeno Jr. last Saturday night.
Golovkin is fighting junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan next month on May 5 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Golovkin is being criticized by a lot of boxing fans for choosing to fight Martirosyan rather than his IBF mandatory Sergiy Derevyanchenko or Demetrius Andrade. Charlo would probably not think twice about taking on Derevyanchenko. He would force his promoter Lou Dibella to second guess the idea of letting Derevyachenko take a dangerous fight like that on 3 weeks’ notice.
