Jermall Charlo offers to fight David Benavidez at 160

By Boxing News - 10/26/2021 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Jermall Charlo says he’d be willing to fight former two-time WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez if he comes down to 160 or face him at a catchweight.

WBC middleweight champion Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) says a fight with the 24-year-old Benavidez (24-0, 21 KOs) could happen in a catchweight between 160 and 168.

With that said, Charlo doesn’t sound particularly motivated to fight the undefeated Benavidez, even though he would be by far the best opponent he’d have fought during his 13-year-old professional career.

Jermall says he doesn’t see what Benavidez brings to the table because he lost his WBC 168-lb title last year in August 2020 when he came in overweight for his title defense against Roamer Alexis Angulo. He feels that he doesn’t have anything to offer.

Charlo says states that the fans talk about him and Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin, not Benavidez. It’s pointless for Jermall to be talking about Golovkin (41-1-1, 36 KOs) because he’s about to turn 40-years-old in April, and he appears to be only focused on taking safe fights at this point in his career while he waits to see if Canelo will give him a trilogy match.

JERMALL WILLING TO FIGHT BENAVIDEZ

“If David Benavidez can make 160, we can do it,” said Jermall Charlo if we can kind of catch a catchweight in between 160 and 168.

Image: Jermall Charlo offers to fight David Benavidez at 160

“David Benavidez is a 168-pounder that hasn’t made weight, and he has no title. And he has nothing to offer me. So that’s why people keep mentioning Canelo and Golovkin, the higher stakes.

“I will fight Benavidez; he is no problem for me. They talk a lot, ‘I’m strong, this and that,’ but it’s different when you get in there and have to figure something out. Man, don’t listen to it. Hey fans, y’all keep it locked. We got bigger things in store,”  said Charlo.

Asking Benavidez to come down to 160 to fight is essentially Jermall’s way of saying he doesn’t want the fight. The 6’2″ Benavidez is too big to meltdown to 160 to fight Charlo, and he’s got to know that.

Benavidez would be a lot of trouble for Jermall, and he’d likely beat him reasonably easily unless he were weight drained from coming down to 160.

If Charlo wants to fight Benavidez, he needs to talk to his manager Al Haymon at Premier Boxing Champions and have him put the fight together.

Fans are getting tired of watching Charlo fight lesser opposition, as it’s evident at this point that he’s milking his WBC middleweight title against weak opposition so that he can stay champion for as long as possible.

Jermall’s title defenses for his WBC belt:

  • Juan Macias Montiel
  • Sergiy Derevyanchenko
  • Dennis Hogan
  • Brandon Adams

Benavidez is fighting next month against Jose Uzcategui (31-4, 26  KOs) in an IBF & WBC super middleweight title eliminator on November 13th on SHOWTIME BOXING at the Footprint Center, in Phoenix, Arizona.