By Dan Ambrose: Trainer Stephen Edwards says Jermell Charlo can’t afford to lose rounds to Canelo Alvarez because he won’t be able to count on scoring a late fight knockout to win due to the Mexican star’s excellent chin & defensive skills in their fight on September 30th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Edwards notes that Jermell has had a lot of fights during his career in which he’s lost many rounds to these fighters:
Brian Castano
Tony Harrison x 2
Vanes Martirosyan
John Jackson
Gabriel Rosado
Demetrius Hopkins
Instead of focusing on trying to get a knockout, Jermell needs to box Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) like WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol did last year and try and win a decision.
There’s more of a chance for Jermell to win a decision against Canelo than knocking him out, which is unlikely. Bivol had success with combination punching of three to five punches. He overwhelmed Canelo with shots.
Jermell loses too many rounds
“Obviously, Canelo is the favorite. One thing that scares me for Jermell Charlo. Canelo has always gotten the benefit of the doubt with the judges’ scorecards in every fight of his entire career,” said trainer Stephen Edwards to MillCity Boxing.
“If you look at those [Miguel] Cotto cards, they were wide. In the Mayweather cards, one of the judges gave him [Canelo] a draw. In the [first] GGG card, he got a draw. He’s never ever been the guy in his fights.
“Even in his Bivol loss, that fight wasn’t 115-113. It really wasn’t. So, he always gets the benefit of the doubt. Jermell, whenever he goes to decision, he always struggles.
“He’s a dominant fighter as far as consistency in knocking guys out, but he is not really as far as winning the majority of the rounds of his fight. I don’t know why that is.
“Jermell loses a lot of rounds. I don’t know why. He’s got a good jab. He’s a big puncher with solid fundamentals, but for a guy like him, you rarely see him win a decision 10 rounds to 2, 11 rounds to 1. Round for round, he’s not so dominant,” said Edwards.
The reason Jermell loses too many rounds:
- Poor defense
- Too much emphasis on sneaky single-punch power shots
- Looking for knockouts
If Jermell follows the Bivol blueprint to the letter and boxes Canelo, he’s got an excellent chance of winning.
Canelo’s chin too good
“He’s more dominant that he’ll clip you late in the fight,” said Edwards. “Here’s the problem. Canelo has a great chin. That dude takes a hell of a punch. So, if you [Jermell] wait to clip him, it might not come.
“That’s what scares me about Jermell. He gives up rounds, and then he clips guys, but now you’re talking about a guy with one of the best chins in boxing.”
Canelo’s punch resistance is outstanding, but he does an excellent job of rolling with the shots to take some of the power off of them. That helps a lot, as he’s not taking the punches full force like a lot of fighters do.
“That’s my issue with picking Jermell right now, 100% right now. He just loses so many rounds, and you can’t lose rounds against Canelo. If you lose rounds against Canelo, you’re going to lose the fight,” said Edwards.
“If Canelo wins four rounds and three of them are close, then he really won seven because he’s going to get the rounds. He’s got the style that the judges favor. I don’t know if Jermel can do that with the kind of chin that he got.
“Waiting to knock Canelo out [in the later rounds] is a hell of a task because he’s got a chin and he has defense.
