Canelo Alvarez took Sergey Kovalev’s hardest shots in a light heavyweight title fight, Gennadiy Golovkin’s most punishing punches in their three battles at 160 and 168 pounds and countless connections from other taller, strong opponents without budging during his celebrated career. (photo by Ryan Hafey)
Jermell Charlo will move up 14 pounds, from the junior middleweight limit of 154 pounds to the super middleweight maximum of 168 pounds, to challenge Alvarez on September 30 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Charlo is nonetheless confident that he can accomplish something against Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs) that no opponent has done during the Mexican legend’s 63 professional fights.
“I think I can knock him out, yeah,” Charlo replied to a question posed by Showtime’s Brian Custer during a recent episode of his “The Last Stand” podcast. “I think I got the power to knock him out.”
Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs) has scored some vicious knockouts during his rise to becoming boxing’s first fully unified 154-pound champion of the four-belt era.
A picture-perfect right hand by Charlo knocked Charles Hatley unconscious in the sixth round of their April 2017 bout at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. In his following fight, Charlo stopped Erickson Lubin with one punch, another right hand, in the first round in October 2017 at Barclays Center.
Charlo later left Jeison Rosario convulsing on the canvas after landing a damaging left to the body that ended their title unification fight in the eighth round in September 2020 at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
The hard-hitting Charlo also knocked out Tony Harrison and Brian Castano in his 154-pound championship rematches.
Knocking out Alvarez, however, would be the crowning achievement of Charlo’s career, which began nearly 16 years ago. Alvarez has lost only a 12-round majority decision to Floyd Mayweather Jr. and a 12-round unanimous decision to Dmitry Bivol since he turned pro in October 2005.
Charlo realizes that Alvarez’s chin has been one of his greatest strengths, but the confident challenger is sure he’ll present the undisputed super middleweight champion with unusual issues in their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event.
“I throw a lotta blinding shots and I throw a lotta different shots that’s unique,” Charlo said. “It’s weird and very, very different from a lotta other people, and they’re very strong. And I’ve been throwing those shots for years and practicing those certain specific shots for years. And I think he’ll get touched by one of ‘em.”
Handicappers have installed Alvarez as a 4-1 favorite to conquer Charlo in their 12-round fight for the Guadalajara native’s IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.