Jermall Charlo either saw something that he liked or heard something that he didn’t appreciate as it relates to David Benavidez.

Whatever the case, the reigning middleweight titlist has experienced a change of heart on the subject of facing Benavidez. Less than six weeks after initially calling for the former two-time super middleweight title claimant to first get vaccinated before entertaining a fight, Charlo is now receptive to such a showdown.

“Yeah. Let’s make that fight happen,” Charlo stated on the most recent edition of The Last Stand Podcast with Brian Custer. “I’mma knock his little punk ass out. I promise that. I put that on everything I love.”

The commentary comes days after Benavidez (24-0, 21KOs) secured his place as the mandatory challenger to the WBC super middleweight he’s held twice before. A targeted third title run gained traction following an 11th round knockout of Ronald Ellis (18-3-1, 12KOs) in their March 13 Showtime headliner from Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.

Benavidez (24-0, 21KOs) has been vocal of his desire to next face Charlo, going as far as to claim he was the desired target for this past weekend. The unbeaten 24-year old from Phoenix claims that Charlo had a change of heart regarding his toying with the idea of moving up in weight, though that tune seems to have changed in recent days.

Whatever it was about Benavidez’s most recent performance, Charlo (31-0, 22KOs) is fired up about the ideal of the two unbeaten fighters meeting in the ring in the near future. Even without a belt at stake, the Houston native is confident of making an explosive super middleweight debut.

“I give him four rounds, five rounds. I know him out in about five rounds, six rounds—no more,” vows Charlo. “He get hit too much. I’m powerful. I’ll explode on him. Trust me, I do my thing. I’ve been doing this all my life.

“Put me in there. Put me in there with… bro, I’m a lion, bro. Let’s get it.”

Charlo has not fought since scoring a 12-round unanimous decision win over Sergey Derevyanchenko last September. The second defense of his WBC middleweight title came as part of a same-day, split Showtime Pay-Per-View card shared with his twin brother, Jermell who earned lineal junior middleweight championship status while unifying the WBC/WBA/IBF titles following an 8th round knockout of Jeison ‘Banana’ Rosario.

A next fight has not yet been set for Jermall Charlo, who is tentatively due to return this spring.

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox