By Vince D’Writer: On Saturday night, September 30th, a historical clash will take place as undisputed super-middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will defend his world titles against the undisputed junior-middleweight champion Jermell “Iron Man” Charlo at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, live on Showtime PPV.
Canelo Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs) has been wearing a target on his back for a significant amount of time due to the fact that he is the cash cow and he’s also the face of boxing. A long list of talented boxers are lined up, waiting for their opportunity to step inside the squared circle with the undisputed super-middleweight world champion.
Back in October 2018, the pound-for-pound superstar Canelo Alvarez signed a massive deal with the streaming service DAZN. After going through an on-and-off-again type of situation with DAZN, Alvarez made a surprising business decision when he signed a three-fight deal with PBC.
Once the news broke in regards to Alvarez signing with PBC, fight fans instantly envisioned Canelo being involved in a number of intriguing matchups. Rumors immediately circulated as it relates to Alvarez defending his crown against a Charlo brother, but it wasn’t the twin brother that we all expected.
The 154-pound undisputed world champion Jermell Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs) will jump up two weight classes to challenge Canelo Alvarez. The championship bout that is set to take place on September 30th will be the first four-belt versus four-belt battle in men’s boxing history.
Jermell Charlo is daring to be great as he will attempt to dethrone the super-middleweight king. Due to the fact that he’s going up 14 pounds and he’s coming off a 16-month layoff, Jermell Charlo is going into this championship bout as the underdog.
His opponent, the defending world champion Canelo Alvarez, recently had a subpar performance against John Ryder, but the majority of the boxing community believes that Alvarez will rise to the challenge and defeat Jermell Charlo.
The super-middleweight champion is an aggressive counter-puncher who has devastating power in both hands. In his recent fights, he’s been economical with his punches, but he remains a master in regards to setting his opponents up by landing hard shots to the body and then going up top.
Canelo utilizes a lot of feints and head movements because his path to victory is to get inside. Once he gets inside, Canelo prefers to resort to the high guard in order to use the catch and shoot or the slip and shoot. Overall, Alvarez’s fight routine is to press forward, apply mental pressure, and systematically break his opponent down.
Despite the fact that he is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, there is a blueprint as it relates to defeating Canelo Alvarez. The blueprint has been successfully executed on two occasions, as both Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Dmitry Bivol have both posted victories over Alvarez.
From an offensive standpoint, Jermell Charlo has all the tools required to beat Canelo. With a four-inch height advantage and a three-inch reach advantage, Charlo can be successful if he is able to control the range by resorting to lateral movement, the jab, the one-two, and boxing Alvarez from the outside.
Charlo has a variety of weapons in his arsenal. He has a good check hook, a strong right hand, the double jab-right hand combination, and he has the ability to fight off the back foot. With all the tools that Jermell Charlo possesses, one of the biggest questions going into the fight is, does he have the power to hurt Canelo?
The one thing Jermell Charlo can’t afford to do is allow Alvarez to press forward and get comfortable in the pocket. If Alvarez is able to get inside, the uppercut is a punch that Canelo’s past opponents had success landing against him.
For Jermell Charlo, the path to victory starts with the jab, as Charlo is good at using multiple variations of the punch, but for this fight, he must use it from the proper range. When Canelo’s opponent’s jab from midrange, Alvarez normally lands a sharp countershot.
The challenger Jermell Charlo has to be disciplined on offense and focused on defense by employing his normal defensive package of rolling, shielding, and catching. If Charlo can work his in-and-out game on offense and avoid getting into a firefight too soon, things could get interesting in the second half of the fight due to Canelo’s stamina issues.
With all the money and success that Canelo has accumulated, the biggest question for him is does the hunger for boxing still exist.
Jermell Charlo is hungry, and on Saturday night live on Showtime pay-per-view, Charlo is confident that the combination of his skills and his hunger will equate to an upset victory.
