Hearn wants to sign Jermall and Jermell Charlo

By Boxing News - 04/26/2018 - Comments

Image: Hearn wants to sign Jermall and Jermell Charlo

By Allan Fox: British promoter Eddie Hearn says he wants to ink Jermall and Jermell Charlo to his Matchroom Boxing stable, and he says he’ll pay them a lot more than they’re getting right now. Hearn says the Charlo brothers currently don’t have a promoter, so he wants to sign them both.

Hearn currently has one American in his Matchroom stable in former IBF middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs (33-2, 29 KOs), who is fighting this Saturday night on April 28 against Maciej Sulecki (26-0, 10 KOs) in a WBA 160 lb. title eliminator on HBO World Championship Boxing at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Hearn says Jermall Charlo (27-0, 21 KOs) could be the next opponent for Jacobs if he wins this Saturday night. IBF mandatory challenger Sergiy Derevyanchenko is also an option for Jacobs, says Hearn. He says Jermall and Derevyanchenko could be fighting for the IBF middleweight title soon.

The only way that would happen, of course, is if the IBF strips champion Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) of his title for failing to defend it against Derevyanchenko on May 5 in his fight on HBO at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler scheduled him instead against junior middleweight contender Vanes Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) on that date.

”I’ll sign Jermall Charlo. I’ll sign both brothers,” Hearn said to Thaboxingvoice. ”I’ll sign both of them, and I’ll pay them more money than they’re making at the moment. They don’t have a promoter and I like them. They’re great fighters. They’re making a lot of noise. They have no profile and all because they have no promoter. Now they’re doing it on their own. They’re calling everybody out, and I like what they’re doing,” Hearn said.

If Hearn gives the Charlo brothers a big enough, it’s possible he could sign them both, but I doubt they’ll sign with him. They’re younger than Jacobs, and they seem to be doing well with their current situation. Hearn hasn’t done much with Jacobs since signing him. Hearn said he was going to make Jacobs a big star when he added him to his Matchroom Boxing stable, but he’s failed to do that. Since signing with Hearn, Jacobs has fought once in beating Luis Arias by a 12 round decision last November.

Hearn failed to match Jacobs against one of the more notable contenders in the division, and now he’s done the same thing with him by matching him against Sulecki on Saturday. If Hearn keeps matching Jacobs against the same type of opposition, then he’ll age out before he increases his popularity to any extent. Hearn says he wants to match Jacobs against Jermall or Derevyanchenko if he gets by Sulecki, but we’ll have to see if that’s the case. Jermall looked spectacular last weekend in stopping Hugo Centeno Jr. in the 2nd round to win the interim WBC middleweight champion at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Jermall fights on Showtime, whereas Jacobs is signed to a multi-fight agree with HBO. Putting together a fight between the two may be difficult unless Hearn signs Jermall to Matchroom and then HBO signs him to their network.

Hearn believes that Saul Canelo Alvarez’s career is finished now that he’s tested positive for clenbuterol. He thinks the fans will continue to remember Canelo testing positive, and they won’t see him in the same light as they did before.

“The division’s heating up. Canelo’s out of the game as far as I’m concerned,” Hearn said to thaboxingvoice.com. ”I know he’ll fight again but in the hearts and minds of the boxing people, he’s out of the game. He will be for the rest of his career, rightly or wrongly. Gennady Golovkin will fight him,” said Hearn.

We’ll have to see for ourselves whether Canelo’s career as a popular fighter will be finished due to him testing positive for banned PEDs. There’s never been a fighter as popular as Canelo that has tested positive for PEDs, so it’s hard to know how the boxing public will react to his failed drug tests. It may not matter to the fans, because most of them are casual fans that don’t follow the sport closely enough to know about Canelo testing positive.

”The winner of this fight [Daniel Jacobs vs. Maciej Sulecki] will be the mandatory for the WBA world title,” Hearn said. ”I love the Danny Jacobs-Charlo fight. I love the fact that Danny Jacobs could fight [Sergiy] Derevyanchenko for the IBF title as well. I think he’s in a brilliant position. I think he’s a superstar,” Hearn said.

Hearn is right about the winner of the Jacobs vs. Sulecki fight being the WBA mandatory to Golovkin, but that doesn’t mean that they’ll get the title shot in 2019. The low number of PPV buys Golovkin-Jacobs brought in last year in March probably means that Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler isn’t going to be in a hurry to let him face Jacobs a second time, especially with the tricks that he used to try and win the fight by skipping the morning secondary weigh-in, adding a lot of water weight, changing fighting stances frequently, and then running for the first 6 rounds. Jacobs tried everything he could to try and win, and nothing worked for him. The fans weren’t excited about purchasing the fight, and it showed with the low PPV figures.

”I think he needs to put in a performance that he can stand on the turnbuckle and scream and shout out after the fight,” Hearn. That’s what he needs on Saturday night. He went into a shell after he got hit,” Hearn said about Luis Arias in his fight against Jacobs last November. “Danny’s elite level and world class level,” Hearn said. “He won every round. What can you do?”

It’s been a while since Jacobs put in the type of performance where he could stand on a turnbuckle and shout at the fans. The last impressive performance by Jacobs was way back in December 2015 when he stopped Peter Quillin in the 1st round. That was a good performance. Jacobs’ wins since then have come against a shot Sergio Mora and Luis Arias. Those were not good enough opponents or performances that one could get excited about. Jacobs beat them, but it didn’t mean anything because those guys aren’t top level fighters at 160. For Jacobs to impress the fans, he’s got to fight some good opposition like Jermall Charlo or Derevyanchenko.

“This is a very tough fight against Sulecki,” Hearn said about Saturday’s Jacobs-Sulecki fight. “People overlooking him [Sulecki], and say, ‘He’s an easy win for Danny Jacobs.’ He’s a very tough fight,” Hearn said.

People are overlooking Sulecki because they noticed that he’s been pooled from the 154 lb. division for Jacobs to fight. The knowledgeable boxing fans wonder why Hearn picked out an opponent from the junior middleweight division to fight instead of a top contender from the 160 lb. weight class. But it is possible that Sulecki can win this fight on Saturday night if he goes right after Jacobs and targets his weak chin, which has always been his major flaw in his game. If Sulecki goes after Jacobs hard in the early going, he could knock him out if he lands a hard enough shot. The punches that Sulecki was landing on Hugo Centeno Jr. in the first nine rounds of their fight two years ago in 2016 would likely be more than enough to knockout Jacobs.

“The second week of May, we’ll have an announcement that will change the game,” Hearn said.

YouTube video