By Keith Idec
Jermall Charlo’s fight Saturday night against Julian Williams could be his last appearance at 154 pounds.
The IBF junior middleweight champion could continue sacrificing to get down to that weight. Unless the 6-foot title-holder landed a lucrative opportunity to challenge Canelo Alvarez, however, there probably aren’t enough fights at 154 pounds to keep the Houston native in that division.
He told BoxingScene.com that a move up to middleweight is in his near future, which he hopes includes a shot at IBF/WBC/WBO/IBO middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin.
“I’m down for the challenge,” Charlo said of facing Golovkin. “I’ve fought strong fighters, fought technical fighters, all kind of different styles. All my life I’ve been boxing, so it’s not like there’s somebody I’m afraid of. I’m afraid of no man. It’s just about the management, my team putting everything together and my team putting it together in a reasonable time. I’m not necessarily dodging nothing.”
The 26-year-old Charlo (24-0, 18 KOs) first must get past Philadelphia’s Williams (22-0-1, 14 KOs, 1 NC), the mandatory challenger for his IBF title. Their scheduled 12-rounder will be one of three fights Showtime will televise Saturday night from USC’s Galen Center in Los Angeles (10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT).
A victory over Williams ordinarily would set up the IBF junior middleweight champion for unification bouts. Charlo is in a unique situation, though, because there are obstacles to making fights against each of the three other recognized champions in his division.
Charlo’s twin brother, Jermell Charlo (28-0, 13 KOs), owns the WBC world super welterweight title and they’ve long said they’ll never fight. Lara (23-2-2, 13 KOs), the WBA world 154-pound champ, and Jermall Charlo are trained by the same man, Ronnie Shields, thus that fight won’t happen, either.
And Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs), the WBO champion, is represented by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions, a company that has sued Al Haymon, Jermall Charlo’s adviser and the organizer of Premier Boxing Champions, for $300 million.
“My brother has the WBC title, Lara wouldn’t wanna fight me anyways, Canelo and Al are not on [good] terms, and I have the IBF,” Charlo said. “So I guess they’ll just have to come up with another belt if they want me to stay at 154.”
More likely, he’ll have to seek challenges at 160 pounds, including a fight against Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs).
“I guess timing is everything,” Charlo said. “I think 160 just fits right now. [Moving up is] not something I’m pressuring myself to do, but it’s just one of the things that’s gonna take my career up one more notch. Then maybe I can get up on that pound-for-pound somewhere.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
