By Dan Ambrose: IBF World junior middleweight champion Jermall Charlo (24-0, 18 KOs( says he’s going to be setting traps for #1 IBF challenger Julian “J-Rock” Williams (22-0, 14 KOs) in their fight this Saturday night on Showtime Boxing at the USC Galen Center, in Los Angeles.
The 26-year-old Charlo says he could have easily moved up to the 160lb division to start campaigning as a middleweight, but he wanted to give the boxing fans the fight against Williams.
(Photo credit: Stephanie Trapp/SHOWTIME)
This is a fight that a lot of fans have wanted to see for some time. It will easily be the toughest test of Charlo’s career. If he can get past Williams in flying colors, it would give him an excellent name to add to his resume.
The Charlo-Williams fight is part of the Jesus Cuellar vs. Abner Mares card on Showtime. The fight card starts at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT.
“I’m going to fight. I hope he is too,” said Charlo. “I see a guy who’s ready to give go in there and give it his all. I also see a guy who’s ready to run into the traps I have planned for him.”
Williams, 26, is a much different type of fighter than Charlo’s last opponent Austin Trout, who he had a hard time beating last May. Charlo won the fight by a 12 round unanimous decision, but Trout clearly looked like the better fighter in the second half of the contest. Charlo wore down badly in the fight from the pressure from the southpaw Trout.
Some boxing fans believe that Charlo was feeling the negative effects of having taken off too much weight to get down to the 154lb limit, as he looked big after he rehydrated. Charlo weighs in the same neighborhood as middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. Taking that kind of weight off in getting down from the 170s is likely to weaken any fighter after a while. Some guys at 154 are able to continually drain down without it weakening, but Charlo might not be one of those fighters that can continue to do this for much longer.
If Charlo loses this fight on Saturday night, then it might be a good idea for him to move up to 160 to see if he’s stronger in that weight class. It’ll definitely be tough on Charlo to deal with Golovkin, but he’d be catching him at the right time with him starting to age.
“There is no fighter equal to me,” said Charlo. “I don’t think for one second that I’m not going to win this fight. There’s not one second of this fight where my foot won’t be on the gas. This guy is coming to take my belt and I have not forgotten about that.”
Charlo let his foot off the accelerator in his last fight against Trout in the last half of the fight. Charlo is obviously well aware of how he faded in that fight. He’s going to need to keep his foot on the gas against Williams on Saturday night because he could end up getting outworked and taken out if he lets off in the second half of the fight.