By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez will put his undisputed super middleweight championship on the line against the upset-minded Jermell Charlo on Showtime PPV on September 30th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Canelo-Charlo event starts at 8:00 p.m. ET/5:00 p.m. PT.
There’s no word yet on the PPV cost for the Canelo-Jermell event, but it’s likely in the $70 region. Charging more would be a mistake because the fans would balk at the $85 that we recently saw for the Errol Spence Jr vs. Terence Crawford fight last month.
Canelo vs. Charlo is billed as ‘undisputed vs. undisputed,’ as Jermell currently holds all four belts at 154. However, he’ll be stripped of his WBO title the moment he enters the ring against Canelo, and, of course, his 154-lb belts won’t change hands if he losses.
The World Boxing Organization will take Jermell’s 154-lb belt and elevate interim champ Tim Tszyu to full champion. It’s not the way that Tszyu wanted to become a champ at 154, but he won’t turn it down.
It’s just marketing stuff to sell the fight to casuals that are impressed with the idea of both fighters being undisputed champions.
Hardcore boxing fans only career about the fight, which is an interesting one because Canelo is facing a guy that fights similarly to Dmitry Bivol and can easily outbox him.
If Canelo hasn’t fixed the flaws in his game that Bivol exposed, he’s going to be in for a long night on September 30th at the hands of Jermell because this guy isn’t playing around.
He’s coming to rip those four belts off of Canelo and send him back to Guadalajara beltless, wondering what happened to him.
For Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs), this will be the eighth time that he’s fought at the T-Mobile in his last fourteen fights dating back to 2016, and we can only hope the outcome doesn’t end with questionable scoring by the judges.
Canelo will be training in the mountains to try and build up his conditioning for the fight, as knows that this will be a fast-paced contest, and he cannot afford to gas out against Jermell.
“We have decided to hold a high-altitude training camp to prepare,” said Canelo’s coach Eddy Reynoso.
“I’m very happy that we got to make a fight of this magnitude between two undisputed champions,” said Canelo. “Jermell Charlo has also faced the best in his division.”
“I’m really excited to make history once again on September 30,” said Jermell. “This is the biggest fight in boxing. He’s going to see what Lions Only is all about. When the fight’s over, people will have to recognize that I’m the best fighter in the sport.”
