Not everyone is hyped for the super middleweight showdown between undisputed champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez 59-2-2 (39) and challenger Jermell ‘Iron Man’ Charlo 35-1-1 (19) set down for the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 30.
The fight features two long reigning champions who, at 33, are both close to their physical primes. But what looks like a competitive fight on paper could well be a one-sided contest if two International Boxing Hall of Famers are to be believed.
That’s because Texan Charlo, who holds the WBC, WBA, WBO and IBF championships at junior middleweight, will be jumping up two full weight classes to take on the challenge.
There’s a reason they have weight classes, as they say.
Former junior welterweight and welterweight world champion Tim Bradley, who retired seven years ago with a record of 33-2-1 (13) and was inducted at Canastota this year, is amongst those critical of the match-up.
He believes that despite being four inches taller than Alvarez at six-foot and having a near three-inch reach advantage over the Mexican superstar, Charlo will struggle with the physicality of the champion, who has boxed successful as high as light heavyweight.
“That’s a mismatch,” Bradley said in a blunt assessment to FightHype. “How the hell are you going to go up two weight classes? Come on bro. You are going to go up two weight classes when you have been hurt by guys at 154-pounds, you think you are going to be able to take a punch from a bigger guy? Y’all tripping.
“[Alvarez] has fought at 175-pounds, understand that, against big huge dude, [Sergey] Kovalev! Freakin’ monster and he knocked him out. Canelo was able to take his punches, you don’t think Canelo is going to take a Charlo, 154-pound punch? This [fight] is terrible.”
Bradley is not alone in questioning the wisdom of scaling the weight ladder so quickly. Former four-weight world champion Roy Jones Jr, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2022, has his reservations too.
“It’s strange for ‘Mell because this is his first time going that high and he’s doing it for two weight classes,” the former middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight world champion told Fight Hub TV.
“So to jump one weight class is good, but when you jump two it’s a little bit difficult cause it’s more of a significant amount.
“You don’t know how your body’s gonna react to that, that’s why guys usually go up a couple pounds and then a couple more. You just gonna take that 14 pound jump? You gonna see what happens, but that’s dangerous because you don’t know how your body’s gonna react.
“Can you carry that for twelve rounds? Can you take a punch that well twelve rounds? It’s a lot of questions to be answered. If you’re a special guy – which he may be – he can do it.
“It’s kind of a suspicious but gutty thing he’s doing.”
