When it comes to Canelo Alvarez vs. Jermell Charlo on September 30, Mike Tyson believes that Canelo is essentially going to overpower Charlo, who's moving up two weight classes to challenge for the Mexican superstar's undsiputed super middleweight championship.
When TMZ Sports recently informed Charlo of that prediction, the current undisputed junior middleweight king was rather unfazed.
"Mike Tyson is Mike Tyson — he could say whatever he wants," Charlo began reacting to the prediction. "He's the GOAT, he's a legend. It's cool. I have a lot of honor and respect for Mike Tyson. Matter of fact, Canelo, too. He's a legend, too.
"And that's the thing about me, I'm being great right now, I'm trying to be great and be the greatest that I could be, so to go in there and get a dude like Canelo out of there and just putting on bigger performances in 2023, it's been the best year in boxing," he continued. "I think I have nothing to worry about but Mike Tyson is the man. He could say what he wants to say but I got to get in there and fight, Canelo got to get in there and fight."
To the latter point, Charlo vows to be ready in just over a month's time.
"I've been training and I've been knowing about this fight, I've been had this fight locked in," Charlo tacked on. "It was just a matter of time before the world got to hear it."
He also said that despite the early confustion that it was him who was supposed to fight Canelo all along and not his twin brother Jermall Charlo, the WBC middleweight champion.
"It was Jermell Charlo fighting [Canelo] from the beginning," he pointed out for good measure. "If you look at my size, you can tell I've been getting prepared for this. I'm not a little Charlo. I'm the big Charlo."