Tonight: Jermall Charlo, The Apex Predator, Ready to Hunt Down the 168-lb Division

Sergio Mora dismisses the idea that Jermall Charlo will be able to get his career back on track with his comeback against Thomas LaManna tonight in Las Vegas. Mora states that the former two-division world champion Charlo (33-0, 22 KOs) has been inactive for too many years, and is old at 35.

Sergio says Jermall won’t be able to regain his championship form from 2021 and earlier. He states that one of the young “hungry’ fighters will beat him. Mora doesn’t say who that fighter would be that would beat Charlo at 168, but he figures someone will.

Charlo: Apex Predator Returns

I disagree. Jermall has the talent to beat all the fighters at super middleweight, including the top guy, Canelo Alvarez. If somehow Terence Crawford can get his hands on those four belts, Jermall will be on him like a shark. That’s if Crawford doesn’t vacate.

“Charlo is 35 years old. Can he get his career back on track?” said commentator Chris Mannix to DAZN Boxing, talking about Jermall Charlo.

“Can he? Yes. Will he? No,” said Sergio Mora about Charlo not returning to the championship form during his best years, holding world titles at 154 and 160. “I hate to say that because he’s already in his mid-30s. He’s 35 years old. Inactivity robs the greatness of careers. We’ve seen that with [former undisputed light welterweight champion] Josh Taylor recently.”

Mora’s dismissive attitude toward Jermall is troubling. He’s lumping him in with past fighters that have sat outside of the ring for years and tried to come back, but he doesn’t recognize that he’s different. ‘Big’ Charlo has always been a brute, the more powerful and rugged of the Charlo brothers.

Elite Power

Jermall has been known for his power and killer instinct. That’ll still be there regardless of his four years of inactivity. Muscle memory is there. So, Jermall will be just as powerful as he was when he was active. Speed was never what made him great. It was his power and ruthlessness.

“So, it doesn’t matter if he’s undefeated, a two-division world champion. All the accolades that you just mentioned. Inactivity takes confidence. I don’t think he comes back to the championship level,” said Mora about Jermall.”He’s going to get knocked off by one of these up-and-coming hungry guys. He can’t have three fights in five years or whatever it’s been with Charlo.”

Jermall is not going to be knocked out by any of the “up-and-coming hungry” fighters, because there are only a couple of them with the talent that pose a threat. Caleb Plant won’t be a problem if Charlo is 90% of what he was in 2021 and earlier. That fight will show how great Jermall is, and he’s going to be in demand after that victory.

168-lb Division Wide Open

If Charlo destroys ‘Sweethands’ Plant in five rounds like he did against Julian ‘J-Rock’ Williams, you can expect Turki Alalshikh to add him to the short list of fighters he wants the winner of the Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford fight to face.

“I mean, this is an undefeated, hungry champion that was marketable,” Mora continued about Jermall. “Him and his brother [former undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo] had that meaness, that ‘Lion’s Only,’ that barking all the way to the ring. They were scary. Life, not boxing, life has TKO’d Jermall Charlo.”

The 168-lb division is wide open for a fighter like Jermall to capture one or all of the world titles and reign for a while. His main competition would be David Benavidez and David Morrell, but both of them have moved up to 168. With them gone, this is all that’s left of this barren, lifeless division:

Jermall Charlo: Undisputed Diamond

• Canelo Alvarez: On a severe decline and avoiding the killers, and has been dodging for years.
• Diego Pacheco: A tall, bird-like in appearance fighter with power, but easy to hit, and has looked average going up against lower-level opposition.
• Christian Mbilli: An excellent combination puncher with power, but leaky defense. He’d give the faded 35-year-old Canelo big problems; hence, he’s one of the avoided ones, too.
• Edgar Berlanga: A hybrid light heavyweight/cruiserweight-sized fighter, who somehow can drain down to 168. Just with Berlanga’s size, he’s a threat to anyone in the super middleweight division. However, he doesn’t always fight with confidence. He should have beaten Canelo if he’d pressed him like he did in the 12th round of their fight last September.
• Caleb Plant: An aging boxer with no wins over high-level opposition. His smoke and mirrors with Plant. He’s a classic definition of a manufactured fighter. There’s nothing real about him. As American novelist Gertrude Stein once said many years ago, “There is no there there,” a phrase that describes Caleb Plant.
• Jermall Charlo: He’s the diamond talent in the 168-lb division. However, he won’t be able to realize his potential unless he stays active, fighting three times a year. After Jermall obliterates Plant, he’ll be on Canelo’s avoided list too.
• Osleys Iglesias: The biggest puncher at 168, but is invisible due to his career just now starting. This talented southpaw, Cuban Iglesias, will be avoided like the plague by the top fighters.
• Jaime Munguia: Another one of the manufactured, artificial fighters. He and Plant are very similar.