By Dan Ambrose: Jermall Charlo says he’s going to knockout the shorter WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin when he gets him inside the ring. Charlo (27-0, 21 KOs) has been waiting patiently for his title shot against Golovkin ever since he earned the World Boxing Council mandatory spot 14 months ago in defeating Jorge Sebastian Heiland by a 4th round knockout on July 29, 2017.
Charlo, 28, has been sitting on the sidelines waiting for GGG to fight him. Now finally Charlo is position where he’ll get a shot at the winner of next Saturday’s fight between Golovkin and Saul Canelo Alvarez. However, Charlo still may need for the WBC to order the Canelo-Golvokin 2 winner to face him, because unless they’re forced to defend the WBC 160 pound title against him, then they’ll continue to fight other fighters. Charlo is too dangerous for his own good.
“It’s going to be a good guy like Golovkin. He’s going to try and clear up the situation and make it seem like he hasn’t been ducking me,” Jermall Charlo said to Fighthype. ”We’re going to fight and I’m going to knock his ass out.”
I’m not sure that you can say positively that Golovkin has been “ducking” Charlo. Jermall has only fought twice at middleweight since moving up to the 160 pound weight class in 2017. Since then, Golovkin has fought Canelo and Vanes Martirosyan. It’s possible that Golovkin would have defended against Charlo if the WBC had ordered the fight. Golovkin fought Martirosyan as a replacement after Canelo tested positive for clenbuterol and then pulled out of the fight on three weeks’ notice. Fighting Charlo on three weeks’ notice would not have been a realistic option for Golovkin.
Charlo won the interim WBC middleweight title last April in stopping Hugo Centeno Jr. in the 2nd round in Brooklyn, New York. The fast victory for Charlo over Centeno Jr. impressed a lot of boxing fans because it showed that he’s for real. Although this wasn’t the first time that Centeno Jr. had been stopped before during his nine-year pro career, no one had ever knocked him out as quickly as Charlo did.
”November or December, his fall,” Jermall said when asked when he’ll be fighting next. ”They’re going to fight me differently. They’re like up to here,” Charlo said in pointing out that GGG and Canelo are both shorter than him.
Charlo needs to get a second fight in before the end of the year, as if he doesn’t fight in November or December, then this will be the second straight year in which he’s fought only once. In 2017, Charlo defeated Heiland in his only fight of the year. Charlo needs to be a lot busier if he wants to become a star.
It’ll be interesting to see who Charlo’s management finds for him to fight in November or December. There are a lot of good options for Charlo to fight. It depends on how willing the contenders are in facing him.