Canelo Alvarez expects to put on a show when he defends super middleweight titles against Jermell Charlo
LAS VEGAS — It says a lot about Canelo Alvarez that he's a 4-1 favorite to defeat Jermell Charlo on Saturday when they meet for the undisputed super middleweight championship in the main event of a pay-per-view card at T-Mobile Arena, considering Charlo's credentials.
Charlo has:
Beaten every man he's faced. He's 35-1-1, but avenged the loss to Tony Harrison and the draw with Brian Castaño by winning rematches.
Gone 7-1-1 with six knockouts in world title fights.
Won the undisputed super welterweight championship by stopping Castaño in 10 on May 14, 2022.
Never been knocked down in 37 professional bouts.
It's been quite a career for Charlo, though Saturday's bout against Alvarez will bring him into the land of the super elite for the first time.
Alvarez has been considered the pound-for-pound No. 1 fighter in the world at various points in his career. He's currently ranked fourth by both ESPN and Ring and sixth by Yahoo Sports.
He has that mentality that he's the best and he's going to prove it. He started his career as a 139-pounder as a 15-year-old in his native Mexico in 2005. Now, he's a grizzled 33-year-old who has won belts at 154, 160, 168 and 175 pounds. Though at 5-foot-8 he's relatively short for the weight class, he has the kind of mentality that only the elite carry.
Charlo is 6 feet tall and has a 4-inch height advantage and a 3-inch reach edge. That's old hat, though, for Alvarez.
"I have fought with every style," Alvarez said. "I've faced every style in boxing and I know how to fight with them. And I don't care how [tall] they are. I don't pay attention on that. I always do my job. And I know how [to fight tall opponents]."
He's so confident it's intimidating to opponents. And when he finds his groove, he walks them down coolly like he's going downhill.
Charlo faces a huge task, particularly given it's his first fight in 16 months and he's never fought as a super middleweight before. Alvarez is coming off a one-sided decision in May over John Ryder in which, by his own admission, he didn't look good by his lofty standards.
Veteran trainer Stephen "Breadman" Edwards doesn't rule out Charlo entirely, even though Charlo has never been at this level before and he's been inactive.
"I don't favor Charlo, but I feel it's a winnable fight for Charlo," Edwards said. "Here's my thing: Yes, Canelo has probably slipped a little bit. But I don't expect the Canelo who showed up for John Ryder to show up for Charlo. Fighters say they train the same way for every fight, but it's just not true. I'm in the gym with them all the time and certain opponents give you, um, more motivation. It's just that simple. Certain opponents make you push harder."
And that led Edwards to his biggest concern for Charlo going into the fight. Alvarez is Charlo's best opponent, and Edwards believes Charlo is coming off his biggest win.
It's hard to get back up to the same level after putting on the best performance of one's career, Edwards said.
"That's really an issue for Charlo," Edwards said. "The second Castaño performance is his career-best performance. That's the first time he put together a truly complete fight from beginning to end and didn't just look for the big punch. He was boxing. He was doing some great stuff. But unless you're a very, very special fighter, it's hard to come back and do that again, especially at this stage of one's career. If you watch a lot of sports, you see that with other athletes. When [Michael Jordan] scored 63 against Boston, well, let's see if he got 63 the next time out.
"It's so difficult to do, even for the very, very best out there. They put on that great performance and the next time out, they come somewhat back down to earth. Ray Leonard had that great, great fight with Roberto Duran in Montreal. And Duran just was fantastic that night. And Ray said, 'OK, Roberto, let's see you do that again in five months?' And we all know what happened there."
Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach picks Charlo to win by knockout because he said Alvarez is vulnerable to a left hook. Not many bettors or anyone outside of Charlo's closely knit camp are buying that.
Charlo has his hands full, but his longtime trainer, Derrick James, believes he's up to the task.
"This is a very special event because it’s undisputed versus undisputed," James said. "The great Canelo Álvarez is going to bring out an even greater Jermell Charlo. I’m looking forward to Jermell being great and becoming undisputed once again. He’s here to make history."
