Shawn Porter has warned Jermall Charlo to get busy before stepping through the ropes with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.
Tough, come-forward fighter Porter took on all challenges, winning high-profile bouts with Pauli Malignaggi for the IBF title before losing it on home-soil to Kell Brook.
He rarely had so-called “tune-up fights,” and later fought and won against the likes of Adrian Broner, Danny Garcia and Manny Pacquiao victor Yordenis Ugas, but lost against Keith Thurman, Errol Spence Jr and Terrence Crawford.
Picking the right opponent at the right time is a fine art. Far more factors are at play than simply the core skills of each respective boxer. Porter knows this well, and believes Charlo could be in line to learn the hard way.
Speaking to FightHype about a potential match-up with multi-division champion Canelo, Porter explained why the timing of the fight is so important.
“Jermall is in a position where he needs to get one if not two more fights before he gets in the ring with Canelo. He has all the experience he needs but he has not worked in some time now.
That’s a hard fight for him to take on with him being on a lay-off for so long. You gotta make noise so people see you and hear you so the fight happens.
But what I hope they’re not trying to do is talk this fight up then Canelo says ‘come on, I’ll take you on next.’ That would work against [Charlo].”
Despite Canelo’s on-off promoter Eddie Hearn saying previously that he doesn’t think the WBC middleweight champion has done anything to warrant a fight with the Mexican star, PBC’s Charlo is now one of two frontrunners as per ESPN.
The two-weight world champion hasn’t fought since a June 2021 win over Juan Macias Montiel. His absence has been attributed to mental health.
WBC President, Mauricio Sulaiman, has refused to strip him of the world title, saying he has been through ‘complicated personal issues’ and would be supported by the sanctioning body.