Jermell Charlo has stated that he will weigh in at the super middleweight limit of 168 pounds for his upcoming showdown with Canelo Alvarez.
His head trainer, Derrick James, suggested again during Charlo’s open workout Monday afternoon in Houston, though, that the undisputed junior middleweight champion will come in lighter than that for the biggest fight of his career September 30 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Charlo, 33, has not weighed in at more than 155¾ pounds for any of his 37 professional fights and has come in at or below the junior middleweight maximum of 154 pounds for nine of his past 10 bouts.
James doesn’t want his faster fighter to diminish too many of his advantages when he squares off versus Alvarez, who has officially weighed 167½ pounds or more for each of his eight bouts since November 2019. The veteran trainer explained his rationale for how much Charlo should weigh both on the scale and in the ring to Premier Boxing Champions’ Ray Flores while Charlo worked out nearby Monday.
“I really don’t follow what everybody’s saying because I’m not on the Internet like that,” James said. “But you said those numbers – 64, 63, 65 – somewhere in that area. But I think that just because you’re moving up two weight divisions doesn’t mean you have to be [168 pounds], you have to gain all that weight. I think that his advantage is his size and I think that you have to maximize what you have. And you don’t have to [go all the way up].
“You know, we see smaller guys sparring bigger guys every day of the week. And the smaller guys are not getting to the heavier guys’ size to be able to deal with ‘em. It’s just like I have something that you don’t have. And so, he doesn’t have to become that guy to be that guy. And I think, hopefully, that’ll be what he understands and knows the night of the fight, so he’s not so heavy.”
Alvarez’s success in the 168-pound division (7-0, 4 KOs) and the fact that Charlo has not boxed as a full-fledged middleweight, let alone at super middleweight, are among the reasons handicappers have established the Mexican legend as a 4-1 favorite. Houston’s Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs) can become just the second male boxer in the sport’s four-belt era to be an undisputed champion in two weight classes by upsetting Guadalajara’s Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs).
Their 12-round, 168-pound championship clash will headline a four-fight Showtime Pay-Per-View event scheduled to start at 8 p.m. EDT (5 p.m. PDT; $84.99).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.