Four-division world champion Roy Jones Jr has looked ahead to Saul Canelo Alvarez’ first outing of 2024 in what seems set to be a intriguing year for the pound-for-pound superstar.
Alvarez has gone the distance in four consecutive fights for the first time since 2008, losing to Dmitry Bivol, before points wins over Gennady Golovkin and John Ryder, followed up by an improved performance against Jermell Charlo that also lasted all twelve rounds.
Canelo is now being linked to face highly-rated David Benavidez in September, but is expected to fight in May first against an alternate opponent, with one of the frontrunners being WBC middleweight champion and twin brother of Jermell Charlo, Jermall Charlo.
In an interview with Fight Hype, Jones refuted any pre-empted excuses from Charlo, who has fought just once since June 2021, and labelled the proposed contest as a “pick’em fight”.
“If Charlo has only had one comeback fight, whose fault is it? Is Canelo supposed to sit and worry about that or is Canelo supposed to take the best fight that he can take at the time.
“Charlo knows that he has only had one fight and he knows how he felt in that fight, if he takes it, then apparently he felt good enough in that fight to feel like might be able to beat him [Canelo] in this fight.
“If he didn’t, he would say ‘give me one more tune-up first’, but he’s not saying that, apparently he is saying ‘OK, let’s go’, maybe he wants to get revenge for his brother.”
“Charlo has never lost and he’s been around for a long time too, so with him not ever losing before, he will come to fight, it’s a pick’em.”
Alvarez is expected to return to the ring in early May, although other candidates such as Jaime Munguia and Terence Crawford are also being mentioned for the undisputed super-middleweight champion.