By Sean Jones: Bernard Hopkins surprised boxing fans on Thursday by coming from left field by saying Jermall Charlo is a bigger threat to Canelo Alvarez than David Benavidez.
According to Hopkins, Canelo would “Smash” Benavidez, and make him not want to throw punches because of his counter punching ability.
Hopkins even went further than that by saying that Jermall is MORE of a threat to Canelo than the cruiserweight, meaning he’s more dangerous than the huge 6’5″ Lawrence Okolie.
Jermall was hurt repeatedly by Montiel last June in winning a 12 round decision. Montiel isn’t considered one of the good middleweight.
He’s a heavy-handed fighter that has wins over little-known opposition in his home country of Mexico. When Montiel tried stepping up against Jaime Munguia in 2017, he was knocked out in the second round.
“To me out of all of all of the guys, and I don’t care if they include a cruiserweight, to me, Jermall Charlo is Canelo Alvarez’s biggest threat and test,” said Bernard Hopkins to Fight Hub TV when asked if the Charlo – David Benavidez route would be harder for Canelo than the Dmitry Bivol – Gennadiy Golovkin route.
“Why? Canelo would smash Benavidez,” Hopkins continued. “Anybody that throws more at Canelo gives you the opportunity not to throw. Anything that he [Benavidez] throws at Canelo, do you know what Canelo is going to do? [Counter him] All day and make him not throw like he was throwing a round to before then. I’m telling you.
“What do you do? You either try and survive and save some embarrassment or you try to win. You can’t say I’m biased because I don’t promote Canelo [any longer]. I’m trying to tell you what I see,” said Hopkins.
It’s difficult to see Canelo stopping Benavidez from unloading on him with nonstop punches as he does with all of his opponents because he’s facing guys with equal or great power than the Mexican star.
Rogelio Medina and Anthony Dirrell both hit as hard or harder than Canelo, and Benavidez took their shots and unloaded nonstop shots on them. Canelo has good power, but it’s not extraordinary.
The reason why Canelo wins most of the time is because of these reasons:
- Carefully chooses his opposition. You don’t see Canelo fighting dangerous fighters like Demetrius Andrade, David Benavidez, Artur Beterbiev, Joe Smith Jr, or David Morrell Jr. When Canelo does fight quality fighters, they’re often old. Examples: Gennadiy Golovkin, Shane Mosley, Floyd Mayweather, and Sergey Kovalev
- Defense
- Chin
- Questionable decisions
“From cruiserweight to heavyweight, I think his [Canelo] biggest threat is Jermall Charlo,” said Hopkins in sounding more like Canelo’s current promoter than his ex-promoter.
Sean Jones doesn’t agree with Hopkins at all about his belief that Charlo is Canelo’s toughest opponent. It makes me wonder if Hopkins is failing to take a good look at the type of opposition that Charlo has been facing since he moved up to 160.
The only halfway decent fighter that Charlo has fought since moving up to 160 in 2017 is Sergiy Derevyanchenko. That fighter hasn’t looked the same since his grueling contest with Gennady Golovkin in 2019.
Although some boxing fans thought Derevyanchenko won that fight, his face was chewed up, and he hasn’t performed to that level since. So in other words, Charlo got a depleted Derevyanchenko instead of the fresh one that Golovkin fought.
It was surprising to hear Hopkins rating WBC middleweight champion Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) so high, considering how poor he looked in his fights against Juan Macias Montiel, Matt Korobov, and Sergiy Derevyanchenko.
“I think the fighters have an opportunity to speak for themselves, and if he’s [Jermall] been handled wrong, I think he’s smart enough and I believe he’s smart enough to say what he wants,” said Hopkins when asked if Jermall Charlo has been handled correctly by his promoters given the important fights that he’s failed to take against Demetrius Andrade and Canelo Alvarez.
