In a day and age where boxers have often shown that their undefeated and pretty records are more important than anything else, Jermell Charlo couldn’t care less.
In 2014, an undefeated Charlo happily accepted a junior middleweight title fight against former titlist Demetrius Andrade. Although Andrade would eventually pull out of their showdown due to financial reasons, Charlo was never unnerved over the possibility of facing a fellow undefeated fighter. Fast forward just a few years later, Charlo suffered the first defeat of his career against Tony Harrison.
Media pundits urged Charlo to simply accept his loss to the loquacious Harrison and head in another direction. Charlo though, wasn’t interested in allowing Harrison to hold an edge over him. So, in their immediate rematch, Charlo blasted his man, stopping him in the 11th round.
In back-to-back years, Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs) became best friends with Brian Castano. With Charlo and Castano initially battling it out to a split decision draw, Charlo eventually ended their rivalry this past year via 10th-round stoppage.
Charlo’s record is now an imperfect one. But even with his tattered, yet impressive resume, Charlo holds every world title at 154 pounds. The division still has a few worthy opponents, most notably Tim Tszyu, but Charlo is temporarily abandoning his junior middleweight throne to take on a bigger challenge.
On September 30th, in Las Vegas, Nevada, Charlo audaciously decided to move up two full weight classes to take on fellow undisputed champion, Canelo Alvarez. Facing the Mexican star won’t be a benign experience for Charlo, but he’s perfectly fine with that.
During one particularly violent stretch, Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs) KO’d practically every super middleweight that stood across the ring from him. Deleterious shots or not, Charlo isn’t acting oblivious to the sort of heat that Alvarez will be throwing in his direction come fight night.
That said, Charlo knows good and well that playing it safe will do little to enhance his legacy. So, with the biggest fight of his life slowly approaching, he took to social media to answer those who are questioning why he decided to make the move not one, but two full weight classes.
“With great risk, comes great reward.”