By Dan Ambrose: Jermall Charlo and his twin brother Jermell Charlo are showing no signs of wanting to leave Premier Boxing Champions to sign with Matchroom Boxing USA promoter Eddie Hearn to have their fights streamed on DAZN. The Charlos are with manager Al Haymon, who pays them well for their fights on PBC on Fox.
Hearn and/or DAZN might need to offer the kind of money that Saul Canelo Alvarez was recently given by the streaming platform for them to leave PBC. Canelo, 28, signed a 5-year, 11-fight, $365 million deal with DAZN last week despite coming off consecutive controversial decision fights against Gennady Golovkin. The Charlos are unbeaten, and have had no controversial fights during thier respective careers. They’ve been dominating their opposition since they turned pro.
Jermall says that if Hearn wants to sign them, then he’s going to need to come up with some big cash to get him and his brother Jermell (31-0, 15 KOs) to sign with him. Jermall, 28, isn’t ruling out joining up with Hearn. That’s the good news. The bad news is he’s saying it’s going to need to be a BIG offer from Hearn for him and Jermell to come aboard the growing DAZN train.
“Al Haymon has been the absolute best to us!” Jermall said to the boxing media. “We would not go against what he’s done for us. Simple as that. If Hearn wants us he’s going to have to give us a big offer. It’s going to be a double package. It’s going (to need to be for) the Charlo twins. (Eddie Hearn gave us an offer) but it hasn’t been nothing,” Jermall said.
It’s unknown whether the Charlo brothers are as good as they seem to be, because they still haven’t been matched against an elite level opponent during their careers. Jermell is supposed to be facing IBF/WBA junior middleweight champion Jarrett Hurd in a unification fight in 2019. Until that fight happens, there’s no way of knowing if Jermeel is the real deal.
The Charlo brothers are confident, and they have right to be. The two of them at the top of their game right now, knocking guys out almost each time they fight and shining with every performance. Jermall has looked superb in his two fights since moving up to 160 last year. Jermall has knockouts of Hugo Centeno Jr. and Jorge Sebastian Heiland,and he’s currently the mandatory challenger to World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Canelo Alvarez. It’s an unknown whether Canelo will defend his WBC title against Jermall when/if he returns to the middleweight division after he challenges WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion Rocky Fielding on December 15 at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Jermall (27-0, 21 KOs) will be defending his interim WBC middleweight title on December 22 against former 2-time world title challenger Willie Monroe Jr. (23-3, 6 KOs) in the main event at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. It’s important that Jermall put in an impressive performance against Monroe for him to keep his stock high with the boxing public. Jermall looked great in his last two fights in New York in destroying Hugo Centeno Jr. in two rounds last April, and Jorge Sebastian Heiland in four rounds last year in July. Jermell (31-0,15 KOs) will be fighting in the co-feature in defending his WBC junior middleweight title against Tony Harrison (27-2, 21 KOs).
Jermell does’t think too much of the fighters that Hearn has signed to his Matchroom Boxing USA/DAZN stable. Hearn has signed Jermell Charlo, Demetrius Andrade, Jessie Vargas, Danny Roman, Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., Artur Beterbiev, and Oleksandr Usyk. Hearn is looking to sign WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol. Hearn already has heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua. Hearn’s British stable of fighters is quite good. Hearn was hoping to sign Saul Alvarez, but his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions went straight to DAZN to make a deal rather than using Hearn as the go between by signing with him.
“Eddie Hearn on some Love and Hip-Hop s–t,” Jermell said to the boxing media. “He’s trying to get artists who are already done and washed-up. You see artists you don’t even see in a long time, you see them on Love and Hip-Hop, right? How many L’s [losses] do some of [Hearn’s fighters] got? Do he really got some superior undefeated dogs?” Jermell said.
Hearn has signed a lot of guys that still quite talented, but he lacks a real big name that will interest the boxing fans in the U.S. Joshua is a good heavyweight, but he’s not well known in the States with the casual boxing fans. Hearn has former WBA middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs as part of his Matchroom Boxing stable, but he’s not a star and he’s been looking kind of worn since taking on former middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in March 2017.
“DAZN, it’s a dozen dummies,” Jermall said. “Let them do what they do. Hearn get burned, you dig? It all sound the same. Don’t worry. Look, we’re going to continue doing what we been doing,” Jermall said.
It doesn’t sound like Jermall or Jermell will be signing with Hearn anytime soon unless DAZN comes up with some of the Canelo type money to get them to join up. What’s likely to stop those two fighters from getting tremendous offers from DAZN or Hearn is their lack of popularity in the U.S, and their resumes, which are thin on talent. The Charlo brothers look quite talented, but neither of them has beaten a big name for them to be seen as safe bets for DAZN or Hearn to pay them the big money that they obviously want for them to consider leaving Premier Boxing Champions manager Haymon.
The Charlos need to start fighting better opposition. There’s no reason for Jermall to be defending his interim WBC middleweight title against a guy like Monroe. Jermall would like to fight Canelo, but he can’t because the Mexican star chose to move up to 168 to challenge WBA ‘regular’ super middleweight champion Rocky Fielding on December 15 rather than defend his new WBC 160 lb title. Further, the World Boxing Council isn’t talking about wanting to order Canelo to defend his title against his mandatory challenger Charlo.
