Canelo Alvarez will fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for the eighth time in the past seven years when he meets Jermell Charlo in another 12-round main event September 30.
Mexico’s Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs) will also see familiar faces around the ring when he defends his IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles against Houston’s Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs). The Nevada State Athletic Commission approved California’s Max De Luca, Oklahoma’s David Sutherland and New Jersey’s Steve Weisfeld as the three judges for the Alvarez-Charlo fight at its monthly meeting Tuesday morning in Las Vegas.
The NSAC also appointed New Jersey’s Harvey Dock as the referee for their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event.
Sutherland and Weisfeld most recently scored Alvarez’s 12-round, unanimous-decision victory over Gennadiy Golovkin in their third fight a year ago at T-Mobile Arena. Nevada’s Tim Cheatham, Sutherland and Weisfeld all scored Alvarez a 115-113 winner over Kazakhstan’s Golovkin in that DAZN Pay-Per-View main event.
Weisfeld will work his seventh Alvarez fight in the past five years and his sixth such match in Las Vegas. In the bout before Alvarez beat Golovkin in their third meeting, Weisfeld scored Russia’s Dmitry Bivol a 115-113 winner versus Alvarez in May 2022 at T-Mobile Arena.
Weisfeld will score his third Charlo fight in the past three years as well.
He credited Argentina’s Brian Castano with a 114-113 victory over Charlo in their 12-round, 154-pound title unification fight in July 2021 at AT&T Center in San Antonio. That very competitive contest resulted in a split draw because judge Nelson Vazquez scored Charlo a 117-111 winner and Cheatham had it even, 114-114.
Sutherland and De Luca have been assigned to just their second Alvarez bout apiece.
In De Luca’s first fight that featured Alvarez, he had the four-division champion ahead 78-74 through eight rounds against British southpaw Billy Joe Saunders. Saunders didn’t answer the bell for the ninth round due to a fractured orbital bone around his right eye in their May 2021 bout at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
While De Luca doesn’t have history with Charlo, Sutherland will handle his third Charlo bout in less than four years.
Sutherland had Charlo in front of Castano by three points, 87-84, when Charlo knocked out the former WBO junior middleweight champion in the 10th round of their rematch in May 2022 at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California. Sutherland also had Charlo ahead of Detroit’s Tony Harrison by three points, 96-93, before Charlo won their rematch by 11th-round knockout in December 2019 at Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.
Dock, meanwhile, will work his first Alvarez fight. He has established himself, however, as one of the best referees in boxing and most recently in Las Vegas was the third man in the ring for Terence Crawford’s ninth-round technical knockout of Errol Spence Jr. in their welterweight title unification fight July 29 at T-Mobile Arena.
Dock has officiated three of Charlo’s fights – his sixth-round knockout of Charles Hatley, his first-round knockout of Erickson Lubin and his eighth-round knockout of Jeison Rosario.
The NSAC also approved Cheatham, Arizona’s Chris Flores and Weisfeld as the judges and California’s Thomas Taylor as the referee Tuesday for the Yordenis Ugas-Mario Barrios bout on the Alvarez-Charlo undercard. The Cuban-born, Las Vegas-based Ugas (27-5, 12 KOs) will face San Antonio’s Barrios (27-2, 18 KOs) in a 12-round fight for the WBC interim welterweight title.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.