By Dan Ambrose: Showing beautiful punching power, IBF junior middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (23-0, 18 KOs) scored three knockdowns in the process of knocking challenger Wilky Campfort (21-2, 12 KOs) out in the 4th round in their fight at the Bomb Factory in Dallas, Texas.
Charlo landed a picture perfect left uppercut in the 4th round that sent Campford backwards in pain. Charlo then landed a token right hand that sent Campfort down on the canvas. The fight was over at that point. Charlo really didn’t need to add the finishing right hand because Campfort was going to go down anyway. Charlo knocked Campfort down in the 2nd and 3rd rounds.
Charlo looked much bigger than Campfort in this fight. I can’t imagine Charlo being able to continue to make weight for this weight division for too much longer because he looked like a super middleweight tonight. As big as Charlo was on the fight, it would seem insane for him to continue fighting at 154.
After the fight, Charlo confirmed that he plans on sticking it out in the junior middleweight division rather than moving up to middleweight to seek out big money fights against the likes of Miguel Cotto, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, Andy Lee, Peter Quillin, Daniel Jacobs, Chris Eubank Jr. or Billy Joe Saunders. I guess it’s one of those kinds of decisions where Charlo, 25, might feel more comfortable being a big fish in a small pond of lesser talented fighters than moving up in weight to 160 and being a small fish in a big pond of talented fighters, some of which would have an excellent chance of beating him.
At 154, Charlo can throw his weight around and dominate poor opposition like Campfort, but at middleweight, Charlo would be forced to face some real threats. There aren’t as many weak opponents to fight. Even some of the basic contenders in the 160lb division might prove to be too much for Charlo. One example is Tureano Johnson, who is a far better inside fighter than Charlo in my view. Others would be Eubank Jr and Arif Magomedov.
Let’s face it, Charlo would be just another one of the many good fighters in the middleweight division, and he wouldn’t be able to count on becoming a world champion in that weight class, even if he targeted one of the lesser champions. With Golovkin looking to win all the middleweight divisions, it would put Charlo in a bad position where he would have to wait until Golovkin got old and retired or got old and became beatable. Either of those situations would be bad for Charlo, because he would have to wait around for years and years for Golovkin to age. Right now, I’d say Golovkin makes easy work of Charlo and his brother Jermell Charlo.
“I’m going to stay right here at 154. This is my title and I’m going to defend it. I’m ready for anyone,” Charlo said after the fight.
Charlo came in overweight for the weigh-in last Friday and had to strip down weight to get to the 154lb division. How much longer can Charlo burn the weight off to fight in a division that doesn’t look right for his body?
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