Jermell Charlo says Terence Crawford needs to prove himself

By Boxing News - 04/03/2022 - Comments

By Jack Tiernan: Unified junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo surprisingly is telling Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford that he needs to prove himself before he’ll entertain the idea of fighting him at 154.

Jermell showing little interest in fighting Crawford makes one suspect that he might not want any of that smoke. It’s hard to believe a high-achiever like Charlo would duck a fight with Crawford, but it sure looks like he’s doing just that.

Jermell is seen by many boxing fans as the more daring of the Charlo twins, but I guess when it comes to fighting Crawford, there are limits to how much of a risk-taker he’s willing to be.

As the WBO 147-lb champion, Crawford can FORCE Jermell to fight him as the mandatory challenger if he wins the 154-lb title from champion Brian Castano on May 14th.

Of course, Charlo can always vacate to avoid Crawford, but if he does that, the worlds going to know about it.

Despite Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) being a three-division world champion and having accomplished far more in his career than Jermell,  he’s being told that he needs to prove himself before he can get a title shot at 154 against the three-belt Charlo brother.

The only reason Crawford, 34, is considering a move up to junior middleweight is plan-B if he fails to get a fight against IBF/WBC 147-lb champion Errol Spence Jr. That’s the match that Crawford wants.

But Terence can’t get the fight against Spence, he wants to move up to 154 to face the winner of the May 14th Charlo vs. Brian Castano II rematch. It sounds like a great idea because it would work well for Crawford and the Charlo vs. Castano winner.

As a pound-for-pound #1, Crawford has nothing to prove. If anything, it’s Jermell that needs to prove himself because a lot of boxing fans believe he should’ve lost his last fight against Castano

“We can make some money, yeah,” said Jermell Charlo to Fighthype when asked about the possibility of him fighting Terrence Crawford if he moves up to 154.

“Why don’t they fight each other?” said Jermell when told that Danny Garcia is also thinking of going up to 154. “Leave me the hell alone and they fight each other. They got to work their way up to fight the champ. I can’t see you until you prove it, right? I’ve been proving it.

Image: Jermell Charlo says Terence Crawford needs to prove himself

“I know all the smoke. I see y’all tooting y’all trains when I walk by. I’m looking good. I see your little light boys coming up from 147,” said Jermell Charlo to The Last Stand Podcast with Brian Custer.

“You got a little name for yourself, your Crawfords. My dog live in Omaha, I know how Omaha rolls. Y’all never seen no real s*** like this s*** here. I like Omaha, there are some studs over there.

How about he do what’s best and go fight Errol Spence then?” said Charlo when told that Crawford wants to move up to 154 to fight him if he can’t get the Errol Spence Jr fight in2022.

“I’ve got some respect for all of them, but you got some real business to handle with those other 147-pounders. Y’all got to go out and get out of the way to mess with me first,” said Jermell.

“We don’t know how many fights we got left. I’m not here to taste that. I’m here to taste one thing and that’s to become undisputed in a high-weight division.

“I don’t know if I’m going to do it at 160, and I don’t know if I’m going to do it at 154. Right now I’m 154 and I’m that guy, and I’ve been here dominating for all of these years. It’s time they put some respect on my name in the boxing world and I’m going to stand up for who I am and stand up for what I represent.

Now listen, I sure wish I could be the one to fight Canelo. Canelo, come to 158. I can EASILY make 158, and I’ll put a boxing lesson on him even greater than Floyd Mayweather did, the great.

“I’ve done said it all. I don’t know what they’ve got going on. Pay me my bread. My brother can fight him at 160 or whatever the case is and all these other guys. I’m the 154 champion, baby, not the other one, but do you know what? I’ll put these hands on any one of these, straight up,” said Charlo.

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