By Dan Ambrose: Showtimes’s Stephen Espinoza says the 154-lb champion Jermell Charlo will be a similar size as undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez when he faces him on September 30 on pay-per-view.
The boxing public has been critical of the Mexican star Canelo Alvarez’s decision to choose Jermell (35-1-1, 19 KOs), cherry-picking him from the 154-lb division rather than someone from his own weight class at 168, like David Benavidez or David Morrell Jr.
Fans have failed to realize that Jermell is a HUGE junior middleweight who is said to walk around at 180 lbs. Some would argue that Jermell has been a weight bully all these years and owes his success at 154 to him being much bigger than his opponents.
“There were a few people in the loop. There were a lot of conversations about Jermell & Jermall, and Jermall obviously wanted it very badly, but he’s got some things in his personal life that he’s feeling with that weren’t really going to let him prepare the way he should have,” said Stephen Espinoza of Showtime to Fight Hub TV on why Jermall Charlo couldn’t take the fight with Canelo Alvarez on September 30th.
“Look, I know people look at Jermell and say he’s a 154-pounder. You look at Jermell physically. I’m not worried about the size,” Espinoza continued. “Anybody that says it’s a size mismatch has never seen Jermell Charlo in person.
“I have full confidence that once we get to September 30th, it’s going to be two similar-sized guys in the ring. It was a group decision [for Canelo to fight Jermell],” said Espinoza.
Jermell’s ability to cut weight to fight in a division considerably lighter than his natural size has helped him win world titles that he probably would have never won if he’d fought in a division more suited to his frame at 168 or 175.
It likely wouldn’t end well if Jermell had fought at super middleweight or light heavyweight and mixed it with any of these killers:
– Dmitry Bivol
– David Morrell Jr
– Artur Beterbiev
– David Benavidez
Fighters that cut tons of water weight the week of their fights to compete in divisions below their actual size are only able to get away with it because boxing no longer has same-day weigh-ins. In the past, it was far more difficult for fighters to compete in divisions below their body size because of the same-day weigh-ins, which made it nearly impossible to rapidly rehydrate after making weight.
So if a fighter wasn’t competing in his natural weight class, he was going to have problems after making weight because he wouldn’t have enough time to put 20+ lbs of water weight back on after the weigh-in.
If the sport went back to that, it would make things difficult for fighters that game the system like that. Even then, they’re would have to be a way to monitor fighters to ensure they weren’t using an IV after the weigh-in to intravenously pump the water weight back into themselves so they could still enjoy a massive size advantage.
