Jermall Charlo says he thinks Jose Benavidez Jr. will be attacking him to the body this Saturday night in their bout on Showtime PPV.
The 31-year-old Benavidez Jr. has to try everything he can to wear down and take the steam out of Charlo’s shots because his chances of winning aren’t good in this fight.
Benavidez Jr. (28-2-1, 19 KOs) has likely noted Juan Macias Montiel’s success in landing body shots and weakening Jermall (32-0, 22 KOs) in their battle in June 2021.
That fight was surprising because Montiel had been knocked out by Jaime Munguia in two rounds in 2017, and no one would have suspected that he’d look this good against Charlo. Montiel was no better than Jose Benavidez Jr. in terms of talent, yet he did really well against Charlo.
As such, he will follow that blueprint to the letter, hoping to bring the unbeaten Jermall down on Saturday, November 25th, at the Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas.
Jermall commends Benavidez Jr. for enthusiasm
“I told him, ‘You better win because maybe I’ll fight the winner out of one of y’all. So you better win if you want to get a chance to fight me,'” said Jermall Charlo to Fighthype about what he old Demetrius Andrade ahead of his title fight against interim WBC super middleweight champion David Benavidez on Saturday night.
The chances are good that Jermall will be the only real option that the winner of the David Benavidez vs. Demetrius Andrade fight has for a big-money contest in the first half of 2024.
Although Both would like to get the chance to face undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, that’s a pipe dream. Canelo is not going to fight either of those guys for a couple of reasons:
1. Jaime Munguia in the pipeline
2. They have complicated styles
3. It’s better for Canelo to wait for Benavidez to put on more weight and potentially ground out of the division.
4. Let Andrade age more
“Jose is doing good. I guess he’s trying to sell the fight. Let him do what he do,” said Charlo. “I love it, but when we get in the boxing ring, he’ll have to make adjustments, and that’s the difference,” said Jermall about Benavidez Jr. “I’ll be as sharp as I can, and I’ll give you the best fight that Jermall Charlo can bring back after two years.
“I just know that he said he’s rowdy like a Charlo. I was like looking like, ‘I don’t know what you mean by that,’ but hopefully, when he gets in there to fight Benavidez, I’ll be pulling for him. If he wins that fight, we’ll get a chance to fight each other,” said Jermall.
Charlo stands a better chance against Andrade than he does Benavidez, but the money would be better if he faces the latter fighter.
A fight between Jermall & Benavidez would be huge, making both fighters a lot of money and putting more pressure on Canelo to face the winner.
Benavidez did the best he could getting the 35-year-old Andrade (32-0, 19 KOs) to fight him, but that’s not a big enough name to create pressure on Canelo to fight him next. To do that, Benavidez needs Jermall because he’s got more star power than Andrade.
Charlo not worried about ring-rust
“I just reached it,” said Jermall when asked if he worried that he had let the best years of his prime slip by, with him staying out of the ring for close to three years. “Don’t worry about the age. I had to take care of my mind, and that’s part of your body.
“I’m way lighter on my feet. Shout out to Roy Jones. He added a lot of reflexes from just watching him for so many months and weeks just seeing how he is as a person. I learned a lot from Roy. Maybe that’ll show in the ring the countless hours we put in together,” said Jermall.
We’ll see how hard Jermall has been working on his conditioning this Saturday night because he will be pushed by Benavidez Jr. and forced to fight hard.
“Because I’ve been off. Anybody is trying to use my time away as something, and that’s for them,” said Jermall when asked why Jose Benavidez Jr. is so confident ahead of their fight this Saturday night.
“Maybe he might attack my body, but he doesn’t know that I’ve been doing abs for two years straight. Maybe he doesn’t know I’ve been running miles and miles. Maybe he thinks I’m out of shape. That’s why I told you I started camp a couple of weeks ago,” said Jermall.
Of course, Benavidez Jr. is going to attack Jermall’s body because he would be crazy not to. The only fighters that have had success against Jermall during his career, Montiel & Austin Trout, did it by targeting his midsection. Benavidez Jr. will undoubtedly do the same and hope that he doesn’t take advantage of the situation by landing one of his big power shots while he’s leaning over, trying to tag him to the body.
“I appreciate everything Al has done for me, and I want to give a shout-out to the WBC and Mauricio. They stood by my side. I went to conventions. I reached out to Roy, and we trained. I reached out to everybody,” said Jermall.
Roy Jones Jr. is a good coach, but it’s questionable whether he can change Jermall’s style in the short period of time that they’ve worked with each other for this fight. If Jermall is serious about only having trained for three weeks, you can’t expect lasting changes in that short time frame.
