Jermall Charlo’s career has completely stalled. The Houston native once kept a somewhat busy schedule. He routinely answered the bell whenever he was called out in public and often made his opponents pay for any of their brazen trash talk.
When he was last seen, the former two-division champ had a relatively difficult time in the ring against Juan Macias Montiel. Still, even with the fringe contender having plenty of success, Charlo eventually went on to score a unanimous decision victory.
From there, Charlo had loads of options. He could’ve pursued a Gennadiy Golovkin fight, chased after a Jaime Munguia matchup, or attempted to unify the middleweight division. All of those options would’ve made fans smile from ear to ear but instead, he was forced to the sidelines in boxing’s version of purgatory.
To get himself back on track, Charlo will officially end his layoff on November 25th when he takes on Jose Benavidez Jr. on the undercard of Demetrius Andrade vs. David Benavidez.
Andrade, once he got whiff of who will be on his undercard, was appreciative of the support, but he was also surprised to see that Benavidez Jr. and Charlo would be getting it on.
Benavidez Jr., for most of his career, has fought in lower weight classes, including in the super lightweight division. Since then, he has made a few transient runs at 154 and 160 pounds but he hasn’t been able to solidify himself as a bonafide title threat since fighting Terence Crawford at 140 pounds roughly a half-decade ago.
Considering the difference in size and power, Andrade isn’t sure what Benavidez Jr. can do to make things competitive. In fact, according to the former two-division champ, he expects Charlo to violently get rid of his man at some point.
“I mean listen, he’s fighting somebody that fights at 140,” Andrade told BoxingScene.com during a recent interview. “I don’t think somebody at 140 is gonna give him a hard time. I think he should knock him out honestly.”