Jermall Charlo vs. Jorge Sebastian Heiland – preview & analysis

By Boxing News - 07/24/2017 - Comments

Image: Jermall Charlo vs. Jorge Sebastian Heiland - preview & analysis

By Jim Dower: Jermall Charlo (25-0, 19 KOs) and Jorge Sebastian Heiland (29-4-2, 16 KO) will be looking to grab the attention away from the Adrien “The Problem” Broner (33-2, 24 KOs) vs. Mikey Garcia (36-0, 30 KOs) fight this Saturday night on July 29 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

The Charlo-Heiland fight is the chief support for the Broner-Garcia fight, which will be televised on Showtime Boxing.

Charlo and the Argentinian Heiland will be fighting in a WBC middleweight elimination fight to determine the mandatory challenger for Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. The WBC could call fall into the hands of Saul “Canelo” Alvarez if he’s able to defeat Golovkin in their fight on September 16 in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, it’s unknown if Canelo would want to defend the WBC title against the winner of the Charlo-Heiland fight. That would be determined by Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions. They might decide that it’s not worth it for Canelo to keep the WBC title if it means he’s going to need to defend it against a mandatory challenger like Charlo.

Canelo already bowed out of a fight against Golovkin when he was the mandatory and Canelo was the WBC middleweight champion. There’s a chance that Charlo could wind up with the green and gold WBC title without a fight if Canelo beats Golovkin and then vacates the belt when ordered by the World Boxing Council to fight the dangerous Jermall Charlo.

“I’ve been training since the end of January for this fight. Now that I have climbed a division I feel stronger, smarter and in general, I feel better,” said Charlo. ”Heiland is a tough fighter and I know he will be a good opponent.”

Heiland should give Charlo a good fight. It’s a fight that could end early though if Heiland doesn’t shore up his leaky defense. In Heiland’s last fight against Mateo Damian Veron on April 21, he brawled with him, getting nailed with hard shots in each round. Heiland eventually stopped Veron in the 8th round, but it was a messy fight from start to finish.

Heiland took a lot of big punches, and he appeared stunned in the 4th. There was no real defense being displayed by Heiland during the fight, and his hand speed was nothing special. If the 30-year-old Heiland fights like that against Charlo, he’s not going to last long against him. Charlo is too fast and powerful for a wide open target like Heiland to be able to go the full 12 rounds against him.

”I’m excited to be facing a great fighter, namely Jermall Charlo,” said Heiland. I’ve waited a long time for an opportunity like this, so I’m going to give it my all. I promise that this fight will be a total war because my career and my future are at stake,” said Heiland.

It’s obvious the Charlo vs. Heiland fight is going to be a war. Heiland only knows how to brawl. He’s a tough Argentinian slugger, who has been going to war with his opponents since he turned pro in 2007. I don’t think it’s possible for Heiland to change his style at this stage in his career.

Charlo-Heiland comes down to these areas:

– Speed: This area goes to Charlo. He’s the much faster fighter of the two

– Power: Charlo has better power in either hand that Heiland. However, Heiland has excellent punching power with his left

– Experience: Charlo has a little bit more experience than Heiland by virtue of his fights against Austin Trout, Cornelius Bundrage and Julian Williams. Heiland’s best opponent of his career is a past his best Matthew Macklin

– Ring generalship: Charlo takes this

– Jab: Charlo has the better jab

– Punch accuracy: Charlo has the better accuracy

– Stamina: Heiland appears to have the better stamina of the two

– Size: Charlo is the bigger guy at 6’0”

Charlo has 3 big wins in his last 4 fights in defeating John “J-Rock” Williams, Austin Trout and Cornelius Bundrage. Those are good wins for Charlo. He also beat Wilky Campfort by a 4th round knockout on November 28, 2015. Charlo’s last victory over Williams was a big one in which he beat a good fighter in stopping him quickly in 5 rounds. Charlo looked thin at the weigh-in for the fight. It’s surprising that he was able to make weight at all, as it was widely known that he had been struggling to make weight for the 154lb division since his fight with Trout.

Charlo is rated No.2 by the WBC behind #1 Heiland. Trained by Ronnie Shields, Charlo is looking to make big things happen in the middleweight division. He wants to fight Golovkin and Canelo. By defeating Heiland on Saturday, Charlo will increase his chances of fighting at least one of those guys. He still might not get a shot at the winner of the Canelo-GGG fight on September 16, as there’s a chance the winner could vacate the WBC title.

Charlo vs. Heiland should be a fun fight for the boxing fans. It’s going to be less of a tactical battle than the main event between Broner and Garcia. Charlo likes to slight, and Heiland only knows one way of fighting and that’s by brawling. Charlo-Heiland promises to be an action filled fight.