By Dan Ambrose: Canelo Alvarez & Jermall Charlo have been moved to September 30 from the original 16th date of the fight. It’s believed that the contest will be staged in Las Vegas, where Canelo tends to fight most of the time and where he’s a lot of luck in scoring.
The fight still hasn’t been officially announced, but this is the guy that undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) wants.
The reason for the move from the original September 16th date for the Canelo vs. Charlo fight hasn’t been revealed, but it’s believed by some that they surrendered it to avoid competing with the UFC organization, who are holding an event on that night.
To generate the most PPV buys possible on Showtime for the Canelo-Charlo fight, they can’t have stiff competition from another fight event, especially involving the UFC.
The point in Canelo choosing Jermall rather than an arguably more deserving fighter is to take advantage of his popularity for easy money. The operative word is ‘easy’ because that’s what Canelo has been about in the aftermath of his horrible loss to Dmitry Bivol in 2022.
Since losing to Bivol, Canelo has been taking easier fights against a shot 41-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin and John Ryder instead of taking the tougher ones against David Benavidez, David Morrell Jr, or a rematch with Dmitry.
Per sources involved, the date for #CaneloCharlo likely will be Sept. 30. #boxing
— Dan Rafael (@DanRafael1) June 30, 2023
The move gives the undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) more time to work on his conditioning because he’s going to need his poor cardio to be improved for him to beat Jermall (32-0, 22 KOs).
Although the 33-year-old Jermall will be coming off a long layoff, his stamina will likely be a major problem for Canelo, and this is not someone the Mexican star can afford to gas out against.
Jermall isn’t going to fight at a half-pace like Golovkin did last September, and he’s not a slow, easy-to-hit, weak puncher like Ryder.
The extra time also helps Charlo because he’s been out of the ring since June 2021, and he’ll need as much training as possible to get him ready. No matter how much time in the gym Jermall has, it’s going to be impossible for him to get the rust of two years out in one camp.
The best that Charlo can hope for is to get his conditioning to the point where he can fight hard for a twelve-round fight because that might be enough for him to outwork the stamina-plagued Canelo.
“Here’s the bottom line. On September 30th, Canelo Alvarez is likely to fight Jermall Charlo at the T-Mobile Arena. Is it done yet? No, but that’s probably what’s going to happen,” said Dan Rafael on his Youtube channel.
“I’m more concerned about the layoff than the size because it’s not like he’s been walking around for the last two years at 160 pounds.,” said Rafael when asked if it’s going to be a problem for Jermall to move up from his normal weight class at middleweight to face Canelo at 168.
“So for him, it’s going to be a lot more comfortable for him to make 168 lbs than his normal weight class of 160. But after two years out of the ring, some can handle that better than others, but it’s not like he looked like his old self even before the layoff, and he’s been inactive for years.
“That could be a problem, I think. I understand there’s big money involved for him, but in the long run, he probably. would have been better off getting a fight first and then getting a shot at Canelo. Maybe that wasn’t feasible.
“You take it when you’re offered it, and you can’t really choose when you’re the B-side taking on the #1 star. So I’ll just suffice to say whatever the weight, whatever the date, wherever it is, Charlo is going to have his hands full big time,” said Rafael.
