Chasing and securing greatness. It has been one of the early themes of the sweet science this year.
Just last month, Gervonta Davis became a three-division world champion, simultaneously holding titles at junior lightweight, lightweight and junior welterweight. Prior to that, Josh Taylor became the undisputed 140-pound king, while Canelo Alvarez is honing in on the same feat at super middleweight with a full hardware heist at light heavyweight to possibly serve as his encore.
Now, enter Jermell Charlo. The unified junior middleweight world champion will have a chance to become the first 154-pound undisputed ruler of this modern four-belt era with a win over WBO titleholder Brian Castano on July 17. The bout will take place at the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Tex.
The fact that Charlo has a shot to cement his legacy amidst a current climate of boxers defining their own careers would make it all the more special, the “Iron Man” told DAZN News during a virtual press conference Wednesday.
“Absolutely. It would be a very special moment,” Charlo said. “Not a lot of people get these opportunities. I think this fight is going to solidify a lot of different things in people’s minds about the Charlos. They’re going to know the difference between me and my brother. It’s a lot of different things to let people know why this fight is important.”
He additionally told reporters as part of the Zoom conference: “This is a major fight because it’s history for me and my family. It’s huge for everyone that I represent and that’s been supporting me for all these years. It was due time to get in there for this fight. The belts and the money are not on my mind. What’s on my mind is the legacy.”
Over in the other corner, Castano feels a similar sentiment.
“This is my opportunity,” he told a pool of reporters. “This is the fight of my life. I’m a world champion and Charlo is a world champion. The chance to become undisputed is just ten days away and I can’t wait. This is my time. This fight is so important for my life. I hope to become undisputed on July 17 for my country and for my Latin supporters.”
Both champions have marched toward this collision course in different ways. For Charlo, it has been a head-down mowing down of opponents — first exacting revenge for the controversial sole blemish on his ledger via an 11-round TKO of Tony Harrison in their December 2019 rematch. That victory had Charlo snatching his WBC title back ruthlessly.
He then captured the WBA (Super) and IBF titles with an eighth-round demolishing of Jeison Rosario in September when he dropped the Dominican fighter twice before finishing him with a vicious body shot.
And Charlo (34-1, 18 KOs) is menacing more fireworks next weekend.
“You’re going to see a more developed Jermell Charlo on July 17,” he vowed to reporters. “I guarantee you’re going to see a top pound-for-pound fighter. At any point, this fight could be over with.”
Castano (17-0-1, 12 KOs), on the other hand, pulled off a unanimous decision win over Patrick Teixeira in February to win the WBO title. He promises to match fire with fire if that’s what the task entails.
“If I have to be more aggressive and go for more power instead of finesse,” he said, “rest assured that I can knock him out as well.”
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The Charlos were in full revelry Sept. 26, 2020, when they shared a twin bill doubleheader, which saw WBC middleweight champion Jermall score a unanimous decision over the same rugged Sergiy Derevyanchenko, who gave Gennadiy Golovkin major issues a year prior, and Jermell crush Jeison Rosario to become the unified junior middleweight champ.
But somewhere in the aftermath of that pay-per-view, their jubilation caved under the pressure of the Charlos' ultra-competitive nature and edge amongst each other. And that sparked distance between the identical twins.
Jermall spoke about that tension during the buildup to his eventual unanimous decision win over Juan Macias Montiel last month.
“Me and Jermell just don’t see eye-to-eye sometimes,” Jermall said in an episode of Showtime's All Access. “We’re so competitive. Maybe after boxing, maybe after our careers, he’ll realize that ‘I was being an assh—e.’”
The WBC middleweight titleholder did add during the same clip that he misses being around Jermell and them feeding off each other, lending their full support to their respective splitting image.
Well, during Jermell's virtual press conference for his July 17 fight with Brian Castano to decide the undisputed king at 154 pounds, "Iron Man" addressed that tension between him and his brother and suggested that space sometimes isn't a bad thing, while also offering that the same distance could be bridged in an eventual reunion that is more heartfelt.
"I feel like you get too comfortable anyways when people are around you and you sit around them all the time," Jermell began telling DAZN News over the Zoom call. "So, the more time you’re by yourself and you’re leading the race and you keep working and you’re pushing yourself, sometimes you surpassed people and out-lap them so many times, so it’s ok to be distanced and then come back when you link back up. Those moments are better, you know?"
Their differences aside, Jermell sees plenty of similarities with his identical twin past just their features. He pointed to their strong personalities possibly preventing their names from rapidly rolling off the tongues of boxing critics and fans alike when broaching the top boxers of the fight game, whether talking flat-out skills or star power.
"We speak our minds, we say what we want to say," Jermell says of him and Jermall. "If there was another Jermell Charlo around, I’d probably be having another grudge against him as well. It’s ok to understand that not everybody in this world ... it doesn’t matter if they don’t like you. If you’re not of this world, you’re not supposed to worry about what they think or feel about you anyways."
If successfully crowned undisputed king of the junior middleweight division, Jermell will surely garner more fanfare.
As he alluded to, perhaps he'll be linked back up with Jermall by then or shortly thereafter.
After all, absence makes the heart grow fonder — tenfold for identical twins.