Charlo Eyeing Middleweight Stardom

By Marc Livitz: On Saturday, March 3, New York City will be set alight with championship boxing taking place at separate venues, one less than six miles apart from the other. Madison Square Garden will host the middleweight title bout between Sergey Kovalev and Igor Mikhalkin, while the Barclays Center in Brooklyn will be the venue for the WBC world heavyweight title clash between champion Deontay Wilder and Luis Ortiz. Sharing the card in Brooklyn with the hopes of equaling, if not upstaging the night’s main event is former junior middleweight champion Jermall Charlo.

Never at a loss for words, Charlo and Lou DiBella, President of DiBella Entertainment, fielded questions from the media on Thursday afternoon as part of a brief international conference call.

Opening Statements, Lou DiBella: “The entire card is loaded for this Showtime triple header. The co-featured bout has one fo the rising stars in the middleweight division, Jermall “Hitman” Charlo, who is rated number on by the WBC. This is a great matchup for the interim WBC Middleweight title, which I’m not the biggest fan off, but it’s been frozen for a while because of Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin doing their dancing together. This gives these guys a chance to show their talents.

Jermall Charlo’s immediate goal: “I want to show the world that my twin brother (Jermell) reigns at 154 (pounds) and I’ll do the same at 160. Hugo is just one step in the process.”

On Centeno’s knockout of Immanuel Aleem: “I’m not Aleem. You’ll see that on March 3^rd. When you face a Charlo, you have to be ready for power yourself.”

On waiting to fight for a middleweight title: “It’s been a good ride. This is probably the happiest I’ve ever been having to wait on something. The pressure’s on me and I just have to do my job. A win on March 3^rd will hopefully catch the eyes of the “Canelo” and “GGG” fans. Hopefully, everyone will see what I’m really made of. I don’t care what they do in their rematch. Hopefully, they get a chance to settle everything and I’ll be waiting.”

Criticism of him fighting hurt opponents: “It bothered me. You see the pattern? Austin Trout was hurt, too. Every fight was supposed to be a bigger test. I fought this guy and I didn’t get a chance to show what I could do. This one will be different.”

His outlook: “You look forward. That’s what I do because that’s what the world does. I look forward to the big fights. Hugo’s in the way and I have to make that a fact. He’s another fighter. I don’t care what anyone says about me. Nobody cares what I think.”

On facing Centeno, Jr.: “I don’t care how ready he is or how many miles he’s run. I’m the best 160 pound fighter out there. I am better, smarter and faster than before. I’m ready to fight the best out there and looking to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.”

On criticism from Abel Sanchez, trainer of Gennady Golovkin: “He can’t say a thing about me. He doesn’t know how hard I train and what I do. Nobody works as hard as me. I feel way better at 160 pounds and I’m doing this the right way.”