WBC middleweight champion Jermall Charlo is one of the most exciting talents in the game and still plans to illustrate that with a money-spinning encounter against Canelo Alvarez.
Last year, Charlo appeared on the brink of that lucrative opportunity as the WBC’s interim champion and No.1 contender, only for the Mexican superstar to be named ‘franchise’ champion therefore scotching any immediate hopes of that fight.
In what could be viewed as a consolation prize, former IBF 154lbs title-holder Charlo (30-0, 22 KOs) was elevated to full champion status by the sanctioning body, but the Texan’s trainer Ronnie Shields insists a fight with Canelo remains his fighter’s driving ambition.
“Jermall gets up for big fights. He knows how to get up for big fights and this is a fight that he wants so bad,” Shields told ‘Time Out with Ray Flores’, live on the PBC’s Instagram page. “In order to call yourself the best, you have to fight the best. Jermall has been asking for that fight for a long time. We really thought that once he became the No.1 contender, the fight would be easy to make.
“But you know what, he just said, ‘Maybe he will see that I’m beating all these guys and [he’ll] go back down to 160 or we’ll go up to 168 to fight him’. We’re just hoping and praying that one day we can get him.
“But, in the meantime, we have to fight whoever they put in front of us,” continued Shields. “And, right now, we have a guy that’s ranked at No.1 in world, that’s Sergiy Derevyanchenko.
“We’re looking at him and I think right now he’s probably the frontrunner for who we’ll fight next. We just want to fight the best guys. Jermall tells me every day, ‘I just want to fight the best guys out there’.”
Main photo: Stephanie Trapp/Showtime.