Jermall Charlo: De La Hoya hasn’t contacted me for Canelo Alvarez fight

Boxingnews24.com

By Allan Fox

Oscar De La Hoya said last week that Jermall Charlo is one of the names on his list of backup options for a fight against Saul Canelo Alvarez on September 15 if they’re unable to put together a rematch against middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin. However, Charlo (27-0, 21 KOs) says he hasn’t been contacted by De La Hoya to take the fight with Canelo, and he sees it as just hype from De la Hoya.

Charlo, 28, says he’d like to be contacted to fight Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs), but thus far he’s heard nothing. Charlo isn’t the only one who says he hasn’t been contacted by Golden Boy after being named as a fighter under consideration to fight Canelo. WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders says he hasn’t been contacted either by Golden Boy, and his name was mentioned by De La Hoya.

“Yeah Oscar haven’t contacted me yet,” Charlo said to Fighthub. ” Don’t listen to the hype. He going to say that — Oscar has not contacted me or my team about fighting Canelo. Don’t listen to the hype,” Charlo said.

It does look real bad that De La Hoya was saying that Charlo was going to be an option for Canelo, and yet he never called him. It just makes you think that the only guy that De La Hoya and Golden Boy wants for Canelo is GGG and no one else. All the names – Charlo, Billy Joe Saunders, Daniel Jacobs, David Lemieux and Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan – that have been mentioned as possible opponents for the red-headed superstar Canelo could be just decoys to get GGG to be worried enough to agree to the 65/35 purse split that Golden Boy had him agreeing to last May.

“I just read [what Oscar said], I knew it was a lie! Oscar is not considering me [for] one of those fights but if it is of course I’m here for it,” Charlo said.

I think Charlo was probably never really ever seriously considered as an option for Canelo. The two guys that are believed to be the possible backup options for Canelo are Gary O’Sullivan and David Lemieux. Those two are believed to be the only guys in the running for Canelo if Golovkin doesn’t agree to whatever purse split that Golden Boy has in mind for him. Canelo hasn’t exactly been taking on terrific opposition in the last four years.

Look at the list of post Canelo opponents since 2014:

• James Kirkland

• Alfredo Angulo

• Amir Khan

• Liam Smith

• Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.

• Miguel Cotto

• Erislandy Lara

• Gennady Golovkin

Golovkin and Lara are obviously very good fighters. Canelo has to be given a ton of credit for fighting those guys, but neither of them was given wins over him. Both guys appeared to beat Canelo in the minds of a lot of boxing fans, and yet neither of them had their hand raised at the end. Lara lost a controversial 12 round split decision to Canelo in July 2014 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. the scores were 115-113, 117-111 for Canelo, and 115-113 for Lara.

”Golovkin’s on the radar, Canelo’s on the menu, Jacobs on the hit list,” Charlo said. It is what it is, I’ll get a chance to figure out where they at sooner or later.”

Charlo is going to get a shot against WBC champ Gennady Golovkin soon, as long as he doesn’t get beaten beforehand by Canelo or Sergey Derevyanchenko. Golovkin could lose to either of those guys, as he’s his own worst enemy in his fights. Golovkin probably would have knocked Canelo and Danny Jacobs out last year if he’s come after them like he did in his fight against Vanes Martirosyan, but instead of doing that, he boxed them for most of the fight until the later rounds. By that time, GGG was tired and not fresh enough to score the knockouts. If Golovkin slugs it out with Canelo or Derevyanchenko, I see him stopping both, but I’m not sure that he’s going to fight that type of fight with them. Choosing to box someone as popular as Canelo isn’t a wise thing to do, as we saw in the Canelo-GGG and Canelo-Lara fights. History has shown us that it’s not easy to get a decision against Canelo. Only one fighter has ever beaten Canelo by a decision, and that was Floyd Mayweather Jr., who was super popular. Even Mayweather didn’t get a unanimous decision despite totally out-boxing him. One judge unbelievably scored the fight a draw.

“Golovkin, they said he wanted to fight me but he really don’t want to fight me. I mean, you see the comments that his trainer and those guys are making, it’s not giving me hope. I’m here though,” Charlo said.

Golovkin isn’t afraid to fight Charlo, but obviously he’s going to try and setup the fight with Canelo first, because there’s a lot more money in that fight. Golovkin’s purse for a fight against Charlo would likely be $2 million tops. For a fight against Canelo, Golovkin can make $20 million at the minimum up to $35 million if he can get a 50-50 deal, which he’s trying to get right now. The money that GGG can make against Canelo is over 10 x the amount that he can make fighting Charlo. So, if you’re Golovkin who are you going to fight – Canelo or Charlo? It’s not about GGG being afraid of Charlo. It’s about Golovkin trying to get the most amount of cash while he still can before he ages out and retires or the sport retiring him. If Charlo gets in the same position that Golovkin is in one of these days, he’ll probably do the same thing. When Charlo is 36, if he has the opportunity to leave the sport with a golden parachute against the America’s only PPV fighter, I think he’s going to opt to go for the money rather than take on his WBC mandatory challenger, who still doesn’t have a big name and isn’t a PPV fighter.

“Like I said, I’m the interim champion — he don’t fight me, I move up to the belt then I call the shots,” Charlo said about Golovkin. And you know what I’m going to do. I’m going to change the game. I’m going to go and get them. It’s not going to be a waiting game when you see me at the top.”

Charlo won’t be calling the shots if he picks up the WBC belt. If Golovkin is stripped of his World Boxing Council title by the WBC, then Charlo will be a belt holder, who probably won’t have access to GGG or Canelo. Charlo will be able to call the shots with the top 15 contenders in the WBC’s rankings, but he’s not going to call the shots against GGG or Canelo. There’s a difference between being a star and being a belt holder. Golovkin and Canelo are stars. If Charlo picks up the WBC belt if the sanctioning body strips Golovkin, then he’ll just be a belt holder. Instead of Charlo calling the shots against Canelo and Golovkin, he’ll be calling the shots against these guys in the WBC’s top 15 rankings: Demetrius Andrade, Jason Quigley, Kamil Szeremeta, Roberto Garcia, Luis Arias, Willie Monroe Jr., Gary O’Sullivan, Jack Culcay, Hugo Centeno Jr., Hassan N’Dam, Ieven Khytrov, Immuwel Aleem, Yamaguchi Falcao and David Lemieux. Even with some of those guys, Charlo wouldn’t be calling the shots, because they’re with Golden Boy. O’Sullivan and Lemieux likely wouldn’t be matched against Charlo.

<b.“top 5=”” on=”” my=”” list?=”” ya’ll=”” know=”” who=”” the=”” top=”” list,”<=”” b=””>Charlo said. ”It’s everybody with a belt in my division. Of course, Golovkin got all the belts so he’s #1. Canelo’s up there. Jacobs is another fight. Saunders another fight I want. They just tried to reinvent this new kid from Golden Boy [Jaime Munguia]. He’s at my brother’s weight, but was going to fight Golovkin, so you know, stay out that division! Because, you know, it gets hot in that division. Like I’m against everybody in my division so it is what it is…You in my division I want to fight you, I don’t want to be friends with you,” Charlo said.</b.“top>

Charlo and Jacobs were supposed to be fighting a little while ago, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen now. Ever since Jacobs beat Maciej Sulecki by a hard fought 12 round decision in their WBA middleweight title eliminator, it’s been quiet from Daniel about a fight between him and Charlo. I don’t think there’s any interest anymore from Jacobs for that fight, because he’s got a guaranteed title shot against Golovkin now.

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