Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez easily dispatched of Jermell Charlo at the weekend and Matchroom promoter, Eddie Hearn, believes the manner of the victory has ruled out a likely next opponent for the Mexican.
Alvarez won a wide unanimous decision (119-108, 118-109 x2) over the formerly undisputed super-welterweight champion, who jumped up two weight divisions to face the Mexican superstar.
Previously to the fight being announced, it had been widely expected that Jermell’s twin brother, Jermall, would be the man to face off against Canelo. Issues outside of the ring are believed to have been the reason behind the switch of opponent, but it was highly expected that the current WBC middleweight champion would get his shot after his brother.
However, in an interview with Matchroom Boxing, Hearn thinks that fight is ‘now dead’ due to the manner of Jermell’s performance.
“I think that they were thinking Charlo, the brother, in the next fight. I think that fight is dead now. They were probably thinking that the first fight was going to be a good fight, competitive, maybe even a little bit controversial and then the brother steps in and it’s a great story. Who wants to see Canelo against Charlo, the brother, now? No one.”
“[David] Benavidez, I think is a big fight. The Crawford talk, I don’t see it. I don’t see Canelo coming in at under 168lbs ever and I’m not sure that Crawford goes to 168lbs, but he is getting on and he’s probably thinking ‘I want to keep these big pay cheques coming in’, so we’ll see.”
Following the loss, it seems that the American’s only option is to return to the 154lbs scene, where he now holds three of the four world titles after being stripped by the WBO.
In order to reclaim his undisputed status, he must defeat Australia’s Tim Tszyu, who will make a first defence of his new belt against Brian Mendoza on October 15.
