By Dan Ambrose: Jermell Charlo has a long road back to rebuild his shattered reputation after his non-effort in his one-sided loss to Canelo Alvarez last Saturday night. It wouldn’t be a huge shock for Jermell to disappear from the sport and retire.
It’s going to take a big win on Jermell’s part to redeem himself, and it’s questionable whether the desire & ambition. He just made a bunch of money fighting Canelo, and he’s now set for life financially.
Like many fighters who become rich overnight, the motivation to keep working disappears, and they get lazy. Jermell has moved into the idle rich category and can hang out in expensive resorts designed for the wealthy.
At the post-fight press conference, Jermell bluntly said that he was only going to focus on taking the biggest money fights and that he wasn’t interested in recapturing his undisputed crown at 154.
One avenue back for Jermell would be to return to 154 to defend his three remaining belts against Terence Crawford, which would be the perfect fight for get back to where he was before his disastrous showing against Canelo.
That might not be possible because Bud said he’s taken off his “hit list” after watching his performance, and he might not change his mind.
If Jermell can’t get the fight with Crawford, he might be better off staying at 168 if getting big paydays is his sole focus for continuing his career.
Fans overwhelmingly think Jermell (35-2-1,19 KOs) just came for a check against Canelo and wasn’t about to actually try and win.
Other options for Jermell to bounce back
- Brian Mendoza
- Tim Tszyu
- Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis
- Janibek Alimkhanuly
- Carlos Adames
“I was expecting a lot more from Jermell, and I was expecting Jermell Charlo to at least address the non-committal-ness after the fight,” said Paulie Malignaggi on his channel, talking about Jermell Charlo’s loss to Canelo Alvarez.
“This is why channels like Showtime are bailing on boxing. You’re still trying to sell the ‘He dared to be great’ crap. Jermell picked up a check, and I’m happy for him, but this was not a hungry fighter. This was not a fighter that cared if he lost.
“This is a fighter that’s going to go back home and be satisfied with a nice check. It doesn’t bother him that he lost, and honestly, you can tell. The fact that he’s calling out Crawford instead of addressing everything afterward was really the icing on the cake as far as establishing the fact that he couldn’t care less about the fact that he didn’t try to win the fight.
“The fight was a dud, and you can disguise it all you want; yes, Canelo looked good. It’s easy to look good against a guy not trying to win the fight, but this comes back down to Canelo getting to choose these kinds of opponents,” said Malignaggi.
