By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez will fight Jermall Charlo on September 15 as part of a three-fight deal with Premier Boxing Champions [PBC].
As part of this deal, the superstar Canelo (59-2-2,39 KOs) will fight in May & September 2024 against still-to-be-determined opposition.
The inactive Jermall Charlo (32-0, 22 KOs) hasn’t fought in two years and looked shot beyond words in his last fight against Juan Macias Montiel.
Whatever fighter Charlo once was was absent against Montiel, and it looked like an imposter inside the ring, getting the daylights beaten out of him against the fringe contender.
PBC must be paying Canelo an awful lot of money him to hitch his wagon to them for his next three fights because, on paper, it doesn’t make sense for him to make this move unless he’s willing to put his career at risk by taking these three fights in the following order:
1. Jermall Charlo
2. David Benavidez
3. David Morrell Jr
Given Canelo’s reluctance over the years to fight Benavidez, it’s difficult to believe that he’s part of the three-fight deal because he & his dad, Jose Sr., would be crowing about the deal at the top of their lungs.
What would be hilarious is if Canelo fought David Morrell (9-0, 8 KOs) and both Charlo brothers, but NOT Benavidez. It would be a way for Canelo to make a spite deal to get Benavidez & his dad hopping mad about being passed over once again.
What would be particularly infuriating for them would be Canelo fighting the newcomer Morrell, who has been only a pro since 2019. Canelo would look better fighting Morrell because that guy is a technical Sugar Ray Leonard type of fighter with amazing skills who can do it all. That guy would push Canelo into a technical fight.
This is potentially bad news for Eddie Hearn, who had hoped to match his recent signee Edgar Berlanga against Canelo in 2024, but with him signing with PBC, that fight is likely off the table for next year.
For Hearn’s sake, he’d better hope that Berlanga is the “new” Canelo like he’s been talking about because this could be a potential disaster. No Canelo on DAZN and Berlanga is the replacement.
Who knows? Maybe Berlanga can replace Canelo and become a massive draw for DAZN. He’s going to need to fight better opposition because he’s not going to do it fighting guys like Jason Quigley and Roamer Alexis Angulo.
Mike Coppinger is reporting the news of the Canelo vs. Charlo fight on Twitter.